Biodegrading Plastic

Plastics have become essential to modern society, driven by their amazing versatility coupled with low production costs. However, due to their resistance to natural degradation, the long lifespan of plastics represents a global environmental problem, posing a serious and growing risk to flora and fauna, and even more so to marine ecosystems. The fact that our current recycling efforts still lack sustainability is also a problem. 

Fortunately, as a possible response to the accumulation of plastics in the biosphere, microbes are adapting to this situation by developing enzymes and catabolic pathways capable of partially degrading man-made plastics. Recently, the bacterial strain Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 was shown to be able to grow on low-crystallinity films of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most commercialized plastics, widely used in packaging and textiles. Two of this bacterium's enzymes, PETase and MHETase, which specifically degrade PET into its natural components, offer promising starting points for synthetic biology and process engineering to help solve the current environmental threat.

Using this recent knowledge, we aim to develop a novel technology to biodegrade PET on a large scale. To do this, we begin by establishing the mechanisms of the PETase and MHETase reactions in the same way that we have been doing in the last few years of our research. [1-4] This talk aims at the development and progress concerning the biodegradation of PET. [5,6]

 

References

1. S.F. Sousa, A.J.M. Ribeiro, R.P.P. Neves, N.F. Bras, N.M.F.S.A. Cerqueira, P.A. Fernandes, M.J. Ramos, WIREs, 7 (2017) 1.

2. R.P.P. Neves, P.A. Fernandes, and M.J. Ramos, PNAS, 114 (2017) E4724. 

3. D. Santos-Martins, A.R. Calixto, P.A. Fernandes, M.J. Ramos, ACS Catalysis, 8 (2018) 4055. 

4. D. Gesto, N.M.F.S.A. Cerqueira, P.A. Fernandes and M.J. Ramos, JACS, 135 (2013) 7146.

5. C. Jerves, R.P.P. Neves, M.J. Ramos, S. Silva, P.A. Fernandes, ACS Catalysis, in press (2021).

6. A.V. Pinto, P. Ferreira, R.P.P. Neves, P.A. Fernandes, M.J. Ramos, A.L. Magalhães, ACS Catalysis, in press (2021).