The first archaeal PET-degrading enzyme belongs to the feruloyl-esterase family

ABSTRACT Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a commodity polymer known to globally contaminate marine and terrestrial environments. Today, around 40 bacterial and fungal PET-active enzymes (PETases) are known, originating from four bacterial and two fungal phyla. In contrast, no archaeal enzyme has been identified to degrade PET. Here we report on the structural and biochemical characterization of PET46, an archaeal promiscuous feruloyl esterase exhibiting degradation activitiy on PET, bis-, and mono-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET and MHET). The enzyme, found by a sequence-based metagenome search, was derived from a non-cultivated, deep-sea Candidatus Bathyarchaeota archaeon. Biochemical characterization demonstrated that PET46 is a promiscuous, heat-adapted hydrolase. Its crystal structure was solved at a resolution of 1.71 Å. It shares the core alpha/beta-hydrolase fold with bacterial PETases, but contains a unique lid common in feruloyl esterases, which is involved in substrate binding. Thus, our study significantly widens the currently known diversity of PET-hydrolyzing enzymes, by demonstrating PET depolymerization by a lignin-degrading esterase.