NEW YORK-UPSTATE Investigating Plastic Remediation: Rational Protein Engineering of Petase From Ideonella sakaiensis to Stimulate The Bioremediation Of PET Pollution

Overview

Despite vigorous recycling efforts, nearly 350 million tons of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)—plastic commonly used to package foods and beverages—accumulate annually, posing a serious threat to global ecosystems. T o combat this accumulation of plastic pollution, the biological treatment of plastic waste has 72 become an important research focus. This process uses microorganism-derived enzymes to breakdown PET so that new plastic polymers with desirable properties can be sustainably reassembled. Though many hydrolase enzymes can depolymerize plastic, PET ase from the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis (IsPET ase) is the most promising of these enzymes because of its remarkably high degradation efficiency at moderate temperatures. However, IsPET ase’s durability and efficiency must be further improved before its ability to serve as a principal recycling strategy can be realized. By utilizing Protein Repair One-Stop Shop (PROSS)—a novel structure-based bioinformatics tool—IsPET ase variants with both improved thermal stability and degradation efficiency were developed. Specifically, four unique IsPET ase variants were designed and assessed to determine if the PROSS algorithm could effectively improve their stability. In the end, all four variants exhibited higher thermal stability than the wild type, with the most remarkable increase in stability having been demonstrated by variant 3—with a 7.5° increase in melting temperature. As this is the first study to solely rely on the PROSS algorithm to optimize the stability of IsPET ase, this study identifies an exciting new route for developments in protein stability. Further, by gaining this valuable insight into IsPET ase’s stability, we are closer to developing an effective treatment for pollution.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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