Engineering and Characterization of an Aromatic Polyester Degrading Enzyme.

• Grant number: 23/08832-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Chemistry of Macromolecules
• Principal Investigator: Fábio Márcio Squina
• Grantee: Ana Luiza Hernandes Sandano
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pós-Graduação, Pesquisa, Extensão e Inovação. Universidade de Sorocaba (UNISO). Sorocaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/05731-2 - BEYOND: establishing a fungal cell factory for recombinant protein production, AP.TEM

Abstract

The intense use of plastics by humanity has numerous negative impacts on the environment, such as waste accumulation and greenhouse gas production. For instance, the polymer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is extensively used in various applications and quickly discarded. PET packaging, such as water and soda bottles, can take hundreds of years to decompose. Considering that this material began to be widely used in packaging in the 1970s, we can speculate the existence of plastic produced in the 70s still present in the environment that has not fully biodegraded. There are alternatives to address this problem, such as mechanical recycling, which, despite being widespread in society, cannot meet the entire demand and often results in lower quality materials. On the other hand, microbial biorecycling has the potential to be efficient, sustainable, and aligned with the principles of the bioeconomy. The objective of this study is to perform site-specific mutations in a thermophilic aromatic polyesterase, discovered by our research group, which exhibits unprecedented catalytic properties. These mutations aim to provide insights into the mechanism of action and enhance the catalytic efficiency terephthalate esters. Moreover, this work aims to expand our knowledge of thermophilic PET-degrading enzymes and foster future initiatives to make enzymatic conversion of PET plastics economically viable.