Nylon-eating bacteria
Paenarthrobacter ureafaciens KI72, popularly known as nylon-eating bacteria, is a strain of Paenarthrobacter ureafaciens that can digest certain by-products of nylon 6 manufacture.[2] It uses a set of enzymes to digest nylon, popularly known as nylonase.[3]
In 1975, a team of Japanese scientists discovered a strain of bacterium, living in ponds containing waste water from a nylon factory, that could digest certain byproducts of nylon 6 manufacture, such as the linear dimer of 6-aminohexanoate. These substances are not known to have existed before the invention of nylon in 1935. It was initially named as Achromobacter guttatus.[4]
Studies in 1977 revealed that the three enzymes that the bacteria were using to digest the byproducts were significantly different from any other enzymes produced by any other bacteria, and not effective on any material other than the manmade nylon byproducts.[5]
The bacterium is reassigned to Flavobacterium in 1980.[6] Its genome was resolved in 2017, again reassigning it to Arthrobacter.[1] The Genome Taxonomy Database considers it a strain of Paenarthrobacter ureafaciens following a 2016 reclassification.[7] As of January 2021, the NCBI taxonomy browser has been updated to match GTDB.
A few newer strains have been created by growing the original KI72 in different conditions. These include KI722, KI723, KI723T1, KI725, KI725R, and many more.[8]
All three enzymes are encoded on a plasmid called pOAD2.[9] The plasmid can be transferred to E. coli, as shown in an 1983 publication.[10]
