Microbial Bioactives
Microbial Bioactives | Online ISSN 2209-2161
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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Insect gut microbiomes as bioactive engines of plastic polymer degradation: a systematic review of mechanisms, microbial taxa, and biotechnological prospects
Hamdy Abdel-Naby Salem 1, Mona Ahmed Hussein 1*
Microbial Bioactives 9 (1) 1-8 https://doi.org/10.25163/microbbioacts.9110757
Submitted: 30 March 2026 Revised: 25 May 2026 Accepted: 29 May 2026 Published: 01 June 2026
Abstract
Background: Synthetic plastic polymers — polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyurethane (PUR) — accumulate globally at a pace that no existing waste management infrastructure can meaningfully address. Approximately 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste have accumulated since 1950 (Geyer et al., 2017), and conventional biological degradation of polyolefins in open environmental conditions proceeds over timescales of decades to centuries (Mohanan et al., 2020). The discovery that insect larvae harbour gut microbial communities capable of degrading these polymers at biologically unprecedented rates has opened a potentially transformative line of inquiry — though the enzymatic mechanisms and microbial agents responsible remain only partially characterised.Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review spanning publications from 1955 to 2024 across six major scientific databases — PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library, and SpringerLink — using structured Boolean search strategies combining insect taxonomy, gut microbiome, enzymatic activity, and polymer substrate terms. Articles were screened against pre-specified inclusion criteria focusing on gut microbial characterisation, enzymatic evidence, or quantitative degradation outcomes.Results: Ten insect species from orders Lepidoptera and Coleoptera — including Galleria melonella, Tenebrio molitor, Zophobas atratus, Plodia interpunctella, and Tribolium spp. — are documented degrading at least seven polymer types. Gut bacterial taxa implicated span Enterobacteriaceae, Bacillaceae, and Pseudomonadaceae; the fungus Aspergillus flavus contributes independent enzymatic depolymerisation capacity. Phenol oxidase enzymes (PEases) in G. melonella saliva initiate PE chain cleavage within hours (Sanluis-Verdes et al., 2022), while emulsification factors secreted by the T. molitor gut microbiome enhance polymer bioavailability (Brandon et al., 2021). Degradation proceeds through a six-step host–microbiome synergistic mechanism encompassing mechanical comminution, surface microbial adhesion, enzymatic depolymerisation, bioemulsification, oligomer bond cleavage, and fatty acid assimilation (Yang et al., 2022).Conclusion: Insect gut environments represent naturally optimised, multi-component bioreactor systems for plastic polymer breakdown. Realising their biotechnological potential requires deeper characterisation of biosynthetic pathways, systematic toxicological evaluation of degradation products, and rigorous scale-up feasibility assessment.Keywords: Gut microbiome, Plastic-degrading enzymes, Insect larvae biodegradation, Host–microbe interaction, Polymer depolymerization
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