Mitogenomic profiling and gut microbial analysis of the newly identified polystyrene-consuming lesser mealworm in Kenya
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Plastic waste has recently become a major global environmental concern and one of the biggest challenges has been seeking for alternative management options. Several studies have revealed the potential of several coleopteran species to degrade plastics, and this is the first research paper on plastic-degradation potential by lesser mealworms from Africa. This study evaluated the whole mitogenomic profile of the lesser mealworm to further identify the insect. The ability of the mealworm to consume Polystyrene (PS) was also evaluated alongside its associated gut microbiota diversity. Our results showed a complete circular mitochondrial genome which clustered closely to the Alphitobius genus but also suggested that our insect might be a new subspecies which require further identification. During the PS feeding trials, overall survival rates of the larvae decreased when fed a sole PS diet while PS intake was observed to increase over a 30-day period. The predominant bacteria observed in larvae fed PS diets were Kluyvera, Lactococcus, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Enterococcus, while Stenotrophomonas dominated the control diet. These findings demonstrated that the newly identified lesser mealworm can survive on a PS diet and has a consortium of important bacteria strongly associated with PS degradation. This work provides a better understanding of bioremediation applications, paving the way for further research into the metabolic pathways of plastic-degrading microbes and bringing hope to solving plastic waste pollution while providing high-value insect protein towards a circular economy.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".