Screening Enzymes That Can Depolymerize Commercial Biodegradable Polymers: Heterologous Expression of Fusarium solani Cutinase in Escherichia coli

Abstract

In recent years, a number of microbial enzymes capable of degrading plastics have been identified. Biocatalytic depolymerization mediated by enzymes has emerged as a potentially more efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to the currently employed methods for plastic treatment and recycling. However, the functional and systematic study of depolymerase enzymes with respect to the degradation of a series of plastic polymers in a single work has not been widely addressed at present. In this study, the ability of a set of enzymes (esterase, arylesterase and cutinase) to degrade commercial biodegradable polymers (PBS, PBAT, PHB, PHBH, PHBV, PCL, PLA and PLA/PCL) and the effect of pre-treatment methods on their degradation rate was assessed. The degradation products were identified and quantified by HPLC and LC-HRMS analysis. Out of the three enzymes, Fusarium solani cutinase (FsCut) showed the highest activity on grinded PBAT, PBS and PCL after 7 days of incubation. FsCut was engineered and heterologous expressed in Escherichia coli, which conferred the bacterium the capability of degrading solid discs of PBAT and to grow in PBS as the sole carbon source of the medium.

Fabrication, Characterization, and Microbial Biodegradation of Transparent Nanodehydrated Bioplastic (NDB) Membranes Using Novel Casting, Dehydration, and Peeling Techniques

“…were the most commonly isolated fungus strains that appeared in our different samples. These findings agree with those found by Santos-Beneit et al [93] and Sasaki et al [92], which were isolates of Bacillus cereus, Bacillus polymyxa, Bacillus licheniformis, Corynebacterium xerosis, Staphylococcus epidermis, Streptococcus bovis, and the fungi Penicillium notatum, Rhizopus nigricans, Aspergillus niger, and Fusarium moniliforme from gum Arabic [68,87,89,90,92,144,145].…”

“…Since DTA typically complements TGA with information on phase transitions [93], the TGA and DTA of each blend were conducted simultaneously. These characterizations were carried out for TGA and DTA for all six bioplastic blends [57,98,99,101] using a Seiko and Star 6300 analyzer, Central Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Egypt.…”

“…A particular category of polymers known as biodegradable polymers [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93] degrade naturally into byproducts such as gases (CO 2 and N 2 ), water, biomass, and inorganic salts [57] after serving their intended purpose. The abiotic and biotic components of the biodegradation mechanism coexist naturally in the soil [2,6].…”

Exploring the substrate spectrum of phylogenetically distinct bacterial polyesterases

“…These polymers can differ in both physical and chemical properties, such as crystallinity, glass transition temperature, molecular weight, and polarity. [ 20 ] So, even though ideally all polyesters can undergo enzymatic degradation through the same mechanism, that of ester bond hydrolysis, each hydrolase's characteristics, such as polarity, active site morphology, and thermostability, along with each polyester's traits can affect the depolymerization performance either enhancing or hindering it. Thus, it is crucial to thoroughly investigate the degradation capabilities of an enzyme across various polyesters to identify the optimal combination based on enzyme's selectivity.…”

Biotechnological Solutions for Recycling Synthetic Fibers

“…In contrast, mechanical textile recycling has been used since the beginning of the industrial revolution. It is one of the cheapest and simplest recycling methods [3][4][5]. However, not all of these processes are suitable for recycling synthetic fibers in a sustainable manner.…”