2013 Volume 70 Issue 10 Pages 609-611
The authors have successfully isolated for the first time bacterial strains degrading nylon 12 (N12), nylon 6 (N6) and nylon 66 (N66). Yeast extract was added as a growth factor to the culture medium for N12 degradation. Its concentration of 0.1% was the optimum for the cultivation of the strain as well as the degradation of N12. This quantity is much larger than the usually added amount for the microbial degradation of plastics. That is to say, if we would have followed a usual protocol with an ordinary quantity of yeast extract, the degrading strain would not have been found. Our results also suggest that a 0.1% yeast extract is adequate for the degradation of N6 and N66.
