Organosilicone (an/aerobic)

This Organosilicone pathway focuses on degradation of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and dimethylsilanediol (DMSD). DMSD is the main degradation product of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) which can be found in a wide variety of industrial and consumer products. Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane is low-molecular-weight siloxane tetramer (D4) of DMSD. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10224038|Grumping et al. (1999)] state that octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane can be biodegraded to DMSD under anaerobic conditions in composted sewage sludge. DMSD is the monomer unit of PDMS. Biodegradation of DMSD in soil was demonstrated by [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8953708|Sabourin et al. (1996)]. There the fungus F. oxysporum Schlechtendahl and the bacteria in the Arthrobacter genus were reported to biodegrade DMSD under aerobic conditions.