bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b English ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg Lancaster LA1 4AP UK info@eidc.ac.uk https://eidc.ac.uk/ EIDC website The Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) is the UK's national data centre for terrestrial and freshwater sciences. information pointOfContact 2026-02-06T13:36:12 UK GEMINI 2.3 Weight loss assay data of Polycaprolactone beads exposed to genetically modified microbes expressing plastic degrading enzymes under laboratory conditions 2025-06-30 publication https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b 10.5285/bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b doi: 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 10.5285/bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b [This nonGeographicDataset is embargoed until June 4, 2026]. 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. Full details about this nonGeographicDataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/bd582f82-ba16-4bc6-8a25-ec29bb22bb5b McCarthy, R. Brunel University of London Ronan.mccarthy@brunel.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7480-6352 ORCID record ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. information author McCarthy, R. Brunel University of London Ronan.mccarthy@brunel.ac.uk pointOfContact Howard, S. Brunel University of London sophie_howard92@hotmail.com author Brunel University of London EMAIL NOT PROVIDED owner NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk custodian NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk publisher Pollution plastic bacterial degradation weight loss assays otherRestrictions Embargoed otherRestrictions Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) otherRestrictions If you reuse this data, you should cite: 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 English utf8 environment Comma-separated values (CSV) NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk distributor nonGeographicDataset nonGeographicDataset Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08 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.