Actinomycete rubber-degrading

Unlike rubber-degrading actinomycete colonies, fungal colonies on latex-agar plates are not surro mded by transparent zones [5]. Superficial growth of fungi on NR films has been observed with a negligible consumption of the rubber [10]. Growth of the molds on rubber may have proceeded at the expense of the non-rubber constituents, like proteins in these cases. 

Microbial attack of raw rubber was first reported early in 1914. Thin film of NR, floating on an aqueous medium, were shown to be disintegrated by some actinomycete strains to a certain extent, that could not be ascribed to the disappearance of impurities from the rubber [8]. Spence and van Niel [9] reported that NR, in the latex state, was degraded by some actinomycete strains, and ifrat a rubber weij t loss of up to 70% was observed after a 28-day cultivation period [9]. Thin films of NR on agar plates were also found to be d raded by strains of Streptomyces and Nocardia, and the weight loss reached 52% after the cultivation period of a month and a half [10]. It was reported that thin strips of NR and S3mthetic isoprene rubbm, with a diameter of 0.5 mm, were decomposed completely by a strain of Nocardia in 56 days [11]. 

Actinomycetes play a major role in degradation of NR [5], while some strains of fungi and bacteria are also known to attack rubber. A strain... 

Jendrossek D, Tomasi G, Kroppenstedt R M (1997), Bacterial degradation of natural rubber a privilege of actinomycetes , FEMS Microbiol Lett, 150, 179-188. 

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