Brandon University researchers find worm that thrives on plastics

The discovery of a link between waxworms and bacteria that devour plastic by Brandon University researchers could lead to new means to reduce plastic waste worldwide, the scientists said.

Dr. Christophe LeMoine and Dr. Bryan Cassone of the university’s Department of Biology worked with Sachi Villanueva, Harald Grove and Oluwadara Elebute, students at Brandon University, to study the caterpillar larvae of the greater wax moth. They discovered that an intestinal bacteria inside waxworms can survive for more than 12 months with only plastic as a food source. 

“Plastic-eating bacteria are known, but in isolation they degrade plastics at a very slow rate,” LeMoine said. “Likewise, when we treated the caterpillars with antibiotics to reduce their gut bacteria, they were not able to degrade the plastic as easily. So it seems that there is a synergy between the bacteria and their waxworm hosts that accelerates plastic degradation.”

When the waxworms ate only polyethylene, the number of microbes in their guts actually increased. Not only that, but as the plastic degraded, it produced glycol. Researchers are still identifying all of the end products of the process and whether those byproducts have other uses.

“Worms that eat our plastic waste and turn it into alcohol sounds too good to be true. And in a way, it is,” Cassone said. “The problem of plastic pollution is too large to simply throw worms at. But if we can better understand how the bacteria works together with the worm and what kind of conditions cause it to flourish, perhaps this information can be used to design better tools to eliminate plastics and microplastics from our environment.”

LeMoine and Cassone published their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and continue to work with the waxworms to better understand how they work with bacteria. Graduate students in the Master of Science (environmental and life sciences) program are also working with the worms.