Abstract
Global plastic waste accumulation has become omnipresent in public discourse and the focus of scientific research. Ranking as the sixth most produced polymer globally, polyurethanes (PU) significantly contribute to plastic waste and environmental pollution due to the toxicity of their building blocks, such as diisocyanates. In this study, the effects of PU on soil microbial communities over 18 months were monitored revealing that it had marginal effects on microbial diversity. However, Streptomyces sp. PU10, isolated from this PU-contaminated soil, proved exceptional in the degradation of a soluble polyester-PU (Impranil) across a range of temperatures with over 96% degradation of 10 g/L in 48 h. Proteins involved in PU degradation and metabolic changes occurring in this strain with Impranil as the sole carbon source were further investigated employing quantitative proteomics. The proposed degradation mechanism implicated the action of three enzymes: a polyester-degrading esterase, a urethane bond-degrading amidase and an oxidoreductase. Furthermore, proteome data revealed that PU degradation intermediates were incorporated into Streptomyces sp. PU10 metabolism via the fatty acid degradation pathway and subsequently channelled to polyketide biosynthesis. Most notably, the production of the tri-pyrrole undecylprodigiosin was confirmed paving the way for establishing PU upcycling strategies to bioactive metabolites using Streptomyces strains.