Targeted aggregation of PETase towards surface of Stenotrophomonas pavanii for degradation of PET microplastics

Si-Qi Chen; Qing-Song Huang; Yang Li; Jing Wu; Sheng Chen; Zheng-Fei Yan

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135895

Targeted aggregation of PETase towards surface of Stenotrophomonas pavanii for degradation of PET microplastics

J Hazard Mater. 2024 Sep 19:480:135895. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135895. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Si-Qi Chen¹, Qing-Song Huang¹, Yang Li¹, Jing Wu², Sheng Chen³, Zheng-Fei Yan⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, China.
² School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, China; National Center of Technology Innovation for Dairy, Hohhot, China.
³ School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, China. Electronic address: chensheng@jiangnan.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Biotechnology and Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, China. Electronic address: zhengfeiyan@jiangnan.edu.cn.

PMID: 39312844
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135895

Abstract

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used plastics, but its fragmentation into microplastics poses significant environmental challenges. The recycling of PET microplastics is hindered by their low solubility and widespread dispersion in the environment, making microbial in-situ degradation a promising solution. However, existing PET-degrading strains exhibited the limited effectiveness, primarily due to the diffusion of secreted hydrolases away from the PET surface. In this study, Stenotrophomonas pavanii JWG-G1 was engineered to achieve the targeted aggregation of PET hydrolase PETase on the cell surface by fusing it with an endogenous anchor protein. This approach aims to maximise the local concentration of PETase around PET, thereby increasing the overall rate of PET degradation. The PETase surface-aggregated system, S. pavanii/PaL-PETase, demonstrated the highest degradation efficiency, achieving 63.3 % degradation of low-crystallinity PET (lcPET) and 27.3 % degradation of high-crystallinity PET bottles (hcPET) at 30 °C. This represents the highest degradation rate reported for a displayed whole-cell system at ambient temperature. Furthermore, this system exhibited broad-spectrum degradation activity against various polyesters. These findings suggest that this system offers a promising, eco-friendly solution to PET and other polyester pollution, with potential implications for environmental bioremediation strategies.

Keywords: Bioremediation; PET biodegradation; Stenotrophomonas pavanii; Surface display; Whole cell biocatalysts.