Antarctic Polyester Hydrolases Degrade Aliphatic and Aromatic Polyesters at Moderate Temperatures
Paula Blázquez‐Sánchez, Felipe Engelberger, Jerónimo Cifuentes-Anticevic, Christian Sonnendecker, Aransa Griñén, Javiera Reyes, Beatriz Dı́ez, Victoria Guixé, P. Konstantin Richter, Wolfgang Zimmermann, César A. Ramírez‐Sarmiento
Abstract
A myriad of consumer products contains polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a plastic that has accumulated as waste in the environment due to its long-term stability and poor waste management. One promising solution is the enzymatic biodegradation of PET, with most known enzymes only catalyzing this process at high temperatures. Here, we bioinformatically identified and biochemically characterized an enzyme from an Antarctic organism that degrades PET at 25°C with similar efficiency to the few PET-degrading enzymes active at moderate temperatures. Reasoning that Antarctica harbors other PET-degrading enzymes, we analyzed available data from Antarctic metagenomic samples and successfully identified other potential enzymes. Our findings contribute to increasing the repertoire of known PET-degrading enzymes that are currently being considered as biocatalysts for the biological recycling of plastic waste.