Plastic Eating Enzymes: A Step Towards Sustainability

Autor: Sanjay K. S. Patel, Jung-Kul Lee
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Indian Journal of Microbiology. 62:658-661
ISSN: 0973-7715
0046-8991
DOI: 10.1007/s12088-022-01041-w
Popis: The large-scale usage of petro-chemical-based plastics has proved to be a significant source of environmental pollution due to their non-biodegradable nature. Microbes-based enzymes such as esterases, cutinases, and lipases have shown the ability to degrade synthetic plastic. However, the degradation of plastics by enzymes is primarily limited by the unavailability of a robust enzymatic system, i.e., low activity and stability towards plastic degradation. Recently, the machine learning strategy involved structure-based and deep neural networks show desirable potential to generate functional, active stable, and tolerant polyethylene terephthalate (PET) degrading enzyme (FAST-PETase). FAST-PETase showed the highest PET hydrolytic activity among known enzymes or their variants and degraded broad ranges of plastics. The development of a closed-loop circular economy-based system of plastic degradation to monomers by FAST-PETase followed by the re-polymerization of monomers into clean plastics can be a more sustainable approach. As an alternative to synthetic plastics, diverse microbes can produce polyhydroxyalkanoates, and their degradation by microbes has been well-established. This article discusses recent updates in the enzymatic degradation of plastics for sustainable development.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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