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McCarthy, R.; Howard, S.

Weight loss assay data of Polycaprolactone beads exposed to genetically modified microbes expressing plastic degrading enzymes under laboratory conditions

https://doi.org/10.5285/bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b
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This dataset is under embargo and will be made available by 4 June 2026 at the latest   Find out more »
This dataset contains information about the weight of plastic (polycaprolactone) beads that were incubated in 10ml of Luria Bertani broth for 5 days at 37 degrees Celsius. Three replicates were performed. The bacterial cells had been modified to harbour plasmids that encoded genes to degrade plastic and/or to trigger the cells to form biofilms, the expression of these genes was induced using Isopropyl β-d-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). An empty plasmid was used as the control.

The work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/X010902/1), as part of an experiment looking into using synthetic biology to manipulate bacterial social behaviours to maximise the microbial degradation of environmental waste plastics.
Publication date: 2025-06-30
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Format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

Provenance & quality

For Polycaprolactone (PCL) weight loss assays, overnight cultures grown in Luria Bertani (LB) broth at 37 degrees C were used to inoculate 10 mL fresh LB at OD600 0.1 containing sterilised PCL beads. The cultures were grown at 37 degrees C with agitation until OD600 0.6, then were induced with 1 mM IPTG and grown for 5 days. The culture media was refreshed after 3 days due to Ampicillin instability (culture collected, centrifuged at 5000 × g for 15 minutes, pellet resuspended in fresh media and returned to flask). The PCL beads were collected using a fine mesh sieve (63 um), rinsed with distilled water, washed on a room temperature rocker in 2% sodium dodecyl sulphate overnight to remove biofilm, rinsed with distilled water and dried before weighing. Control weight loss flasks with uninoculated media and PCL were used to correct the weight loss measurements to account for instrument error or nonbiological degradation from spontaneous hydrolysis so that the control had 0% weight loss.

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is under embargo and will be made available by 4 June 2026 at the latest   Find out more »

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Cite this dataset as:
McCarthy, R.; Howard, S. (2025). Weight loss assay data of Polycaprolactone beads exposed to genetically modified microbes expressing plastic degrading enzymes under laboratory conditions. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b

Correspondence/contact details

McCarthy, R.
Brunel University of London
 Ronan.mccarthy@brunel.ac.uk

Authors

McCarthy, R.
Brunel University of London
Howard, S.
Brunel University of London

Other contacts

Rights holder
Brunel University of London
Custodian
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk

Additional metadata

Topic categories
environment
Keywords
bacterial degradation , plastic , Pollution , weight loss assays
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/X010902/1
Last updated
02 July 2025 10:06