October 21, 2023
DNHS-SanDiego-CA # PlastiFind # Every year around 20 million tons of plastic waste leaks into aquatic ecosystems. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a commonly used thermoplastic resin. Global accumulation of plastic can be counteracted by improving PET degradation in the environment. However, scientists currently lack efficient methods to measure PET hydrolysis, making it difficult to research further in this field. The goal of this project is to develop a sensitive plasmid biosensor to detect terephthalic acid (TPA), a byproduct of PET hydrolysis.
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October 21, 2023
NIS-Kazakhstan # Enhanced PET degradation # PET hydrolase (PETase) and mono(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate hydrolase (MNETase) are known to synergistically convert PET into its monomeric building blocks. Our team developed six bacterial expression vectors with PETase and six dual expression plasmids containing PETase and MHETase enzymes for optimal PET degradation using Pseudomonas putida, targeting scalability in PET recycling plants. Due to time constraints, we focused on comparing the mutant form of BBa_J435500_W159H_S238F enzyme with wildtype PETase, using p-nitrophenyl butyrate (pNPB) as a PET analog.
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