Additional file 1 of Plastisphere community assemblage of aquatic environment: plastic-microbe interaction, role in degradation and characterization technologies

Additional file 1: Table S1. Global scenario of microplastic abundance on major aquatic bodies. Table S2. Potential microbial consortia associated with plastic biodegradation. Fig. S1. Common radical reactions in non-hydrolyzable polymers [269]. A The auto-oxidation process involves initiation by light and heat, followed by propagation and termination of a reaction which is influenced by the physical properties of the polymer. B Intramolecular and C Intermolecular hydrogen transfer reaction in polymer occurs through the abstraction and exchange of hydrogen atoms. Fig. S2. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinylchloride (PVC) are known to consist of similar carbon-carbon backbone chains. Pyrolysis (in the absence of air) is an effective depolymerization method to convert them to the respective low molecular weight aliphatic hydrocarbons [270]. According to the reports [118, 271, 272], the pyrolytic hydrocarbon products of PE are degraded through a terminal oxidation mechanism which is analogous to the n-alkane degradation pathway facilitated by microbes. Fig. S3. Polystyrene (PS) is broken down to its aromatic monomer styrene through pyrolysis [273] and according to O’Leary et al., (2002) [274] several microbes utilize it as a carbon source with the help of two different catabolic pathways. In the first one, which is the direct aromatic ring cleavage pathway, styrene dioxygenase (SDO) hydroxylates the aromatic ring of styrene to styrene cis-glycol. Ultimately it will generate β-D-Hydroxybutyryl-CoA by PhaB (an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase) or can be converted to PHA by PhaC (known as a PHA synthase) [275]. Another styrene metabolism pathway encompasses oxidation of its vinyl side-chain forming polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) as an end product