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Switched reaction specificity in polyesterases towards amide bond hydrolysis by enzyme engineering
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Researchers engineered enzymes that can break down polyamide plastics like nylon, which are normally very resistant to degradation. This could open new pathways for enzymatic recycling of synthetic fabrics and help address nylon microplastic pollution.
The recalcitrance of plastics like nylon and other polyamides contributes to environmental problems (e.g. microplastics in oceans) and restricts possibilities for recycling. The fact that hitherto discovered amidases (EC 3.5.1. and 3.5.2.) only show no, or low, activity on polyamides currently obstructs biotechnological-assisted depolymerization of man-made materials. In this work, we capitalized on enzyme engineering to enhance the promiscuous amidase activity of polyesterases. Through enzyme design we created a reallocated water network adapted for hydrogen bond formation to synthetic amide backbones for enhanced transition state stabilization in the polyester-hydrolyzing biocatalysts Humicola insolens cutinase and Thermobifida cellulosilytica cutinase 1. This novel concept enabled increased catalytic efficiency towards amide-containing soluble substrates. The afforded enhanced hydrolysis of the amide bond-containing insoluble substrate 3PA 6,6 by designed variants was aligned with improved transition state stabilization identified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Furthermore, the presence of a favorable water-molecule network that interacted with synthetic amides in the variants resulted in a reduced activity on polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Our data demonstrate the potential of using enzyme engineering to improve the amidase activity for polyesterases to act on synthetic amide-containing polymers.
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Advances in amidases and urethanases as depolymerization biocatalysts
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This review paper summarizes existing research on enzymes that break down plastics like PET, nylon and polyurethane by targeting their chemical bonds. It discusses the natural variety of these enzymes, their current limitations, especially for nylon and polyurethane, and approaches like bioinformatics and engineering to improve them.
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Two new plastic-degrading polyesterases, jmPE13 and jmPE14, were characterized and engineered from Pseudomonas strains to improve their efficiency in hydrolyzing polyester plastics. The study aimed to develop higher-performance biocatalysts for the enzymatic upcycling of plastic waste.
Discovery and Biochemical Characterization of a Novel Polyesterase for the Degradation of Synthetic Plastics
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Researchers used bioinformatics to discover a new enzyme from soil bacteria capable of breaking down synthetic plastics like PET and polyurethane. The enzyme was successfully expressed and characterized in the lab, offering a promising lead for developing biological plastic recycling approaches.
Tailoring enzymes for polyester-plastic depolymerization.
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Researchers reviewed recent advances in protein engineering of plastic-degrading enzymes targeting PET, polyurethane, PLA, and PBAT, summarizing how directed evolution and computational design have improved thermal stability, catalytic efficiency, and expression yield to make enzymatic plastic recycling more industrially viable.
Biotechnological Routes for Microplastic Mitigation: Current Challenges and Future Opportunities in the Enzymatic Degradation of Synthetic Textile Waste
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Your synthetic clothes (polyester, nylon) shed tiny plastic fragments that pollute waterways and end up in our food and bodies, and traditional recycling methods often can't fully solve this problem. This review rounds up current research on using special enzymes—like ones borrowed from bacteria that naturally break down plastics—to dissolve these synthetic fabrics back into reusable building blocks, offering a more eco-friendly alternative to melting or chemically processing old clothes. While promising, the science is still developing, and researchers note we need more textile-specific studies to make this approach practical at scale.
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