Polyethylene biodegradation by cultivable fungi: review and prospects

Plastic pollution is a worldwide problem, especially when it comes to polyethylene (PE), the most consumed plastic in the world. Biodegradation is a naturally occurring process mediated by microorganisms and their enzymes. The biodegradation of PE by fungi has been investigated since 1980, and these microorganisms are considered great PE biodegraders due to the strong oxidative activity and low substrate specificity of their ligninolytic extracellular enzymes. This review covers 40 manuscripts published up to December 31st of 2024 and the search was performed on PudMed and Science Direct databases using keywords linked by Boolean operators. It was listed 26 cultivable fungal genera capable of biodegrading PE, of which Aspergillus was the genus most reported. Filamentous fungal species, mainly from terrestrial ecosystem were the most studied for this purpose; however, the highest PE biodegradation rates were demonstrated by fungi isolated from the aquatic environment (Alternaria alternata). The data evidences that different methods of plastic pre-treatment and fungal consortia improve and accelerate PE biodegradation. Moreover, there is a non-homogeneous global distribution of research in this area of knowledge as well as the need for a standardization of methodological experimentation. Therefore, this area of research is still in its infancy and deserves to be explored in more in-depth studies to advance biotechnological solutions for plastic waste management.