Scientists have engineered a PET-eating enzyme

Scientists have engineered an enzyme which can digest some of our most commonly polluting plastics, providing a potential solution to one of the world’s biggest environmental problems. The researchers made the breakthrough when they were examining the structure of a natural enzyme which is thought to have evolved in a waste recycling centre in Japan, allowing a bacterium to degrade plastic as a food source. The discovery could result in a recycling solution for millions of tonnes of bottles, made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
An article about the research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (News Item University of Portsmouth, 16 April 2018).
Click here for the news item.
Click here for the published article (1.57 MB).
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