Discovery of a polyurethane-degrading enzyme from the gut bacterium of plastic-eating mealworms.

Although numerous polyurethane (PU)-degrading enzymes were identified from a diverse array of microorganisms in soil or compost, it is intriguing to investigate whether novel PU-degrading enzymes can be discovered in other biological environments. This study reports the discovery of an enzyme (MTL) for PU plastic degradation from the bacterial strain Mixta tenebrionis BIT-26, isolated from the gut of plastic-eating mealworms. MTL shows significant degradation activity towards three commercial PU substrates, including Impranil®DLN-SD, thermoplastic films (PEGA-HDI), and thermoset foams (PEGA-TDI), by cleaving the ester bonds in the polyester polyol moieties.

Microbial Degradation and Valorization of Plastic Wastes.

A growing accumulation of plastic wastes has become a severe environmental and social issue. It is urgent to develop innovative approaches for the disposal of plastic wastes. In recent years, reports on biodegradation of synthetic plastics by microorganisms or enzymes have sprung up, and these offer a possibility to develop biological treatment technology for plastic wastes.

A novel protein purification strategy mediated by the combination of CipA and Ssp DnaB intein.

Protein purification is an indispensable step in diverse fields of biological research or production process. Conventional purification methods including the affinity purification or the usage of self-aggregating tags suffered from many drawbacks such as the complicated steps, high cost and low efficiency. Moreover, the fusion tag usually had negative effects on the activity of the target protein.

[Microbial degradation of polyurethane plastics].

Plastic pollution has become a global environmental issue, making it necessary to explore the environmental disposal technology for plastic waste. Recently, we and other researchers have individually found microorganisms or enzymes from nature that can degrade synthetic plastic. These findings indicated that the capability of these microorganisms or enzymes to degrade plastic could be used for the disposal of plastic waste.