The bacterium was originally isolated from a sediment sample taken outside of a plastic bottle recycling facility in Sakai City, Japan.

[1][2] Ideonella sakaiensis was first identified in 2016 by a team of researchers led by Kohei Oda of Kyoto Institute of Technology and Kenji Miyamoto of Keio University after collecting a sample of PET-contaminated sediment at a plastic bottle recycling facility in Sakai, Japan.

[1][3] The bacteria was first isolated from a consortium of microorganisms in the sediment sample, which included protozoa and yeast-like cells.

[citation needed] The flagellum attached to this bacterium are used as motile organelles and are able to rotate and thrust the cell throughout its environment by creating motion.

The bacterium was also shown to grow on the surface of polyethylene terephthalate (PET),a type of plastic, adhering with its thin flagellum.

[4] The I. sakaiensis PETase functions by hydrolyzing the ester bonds present in PET with high specificity.

The catechol ring is then cleaved by PCA 3,4-dioxygenase before the compound is integrated into other metabolic pathways (e.g. TCA cycle).

[1] Once formed, these two compounds can be further biodegraded into carbon dioxide by I. sakaiensis or other microbes, or purified and used to manufacture new PET in an industrial recycling plant setting.

This species of bacterium makes effective use of PET as a source of carbon, and thrives in wastewater and plastic-polluted water ecosystems, showing its promise as a cost-effective anti-pollutant.