Plastic-eating enzyme holds promise in fighting pollution
Scientists found that the enzyme was helping bacteria to break down, or digest, PET plastic
(Web Desk) – Scientists have claimed to have engineered a plastic-eating enzyme that they say can help in the fight against pollution in the future.
The enzyme is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate, or PET - a form of plastic patented in the 1940s and now used in millions of tonnes of plastic bottles.
Researchers from Britain’s University of Portsmouth and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory made the discovery while examining the structure of a natural enzyme thought to have evolved in a waste recycling center in Japan.
They found that the enzyme was helping bacteria to break down, or digest, PET plastic. They decided to “tweak” its structure by adding some amino acids.
This led to a serendipitous change in the enzyme’s actions – allowing its plastic-eating abilities to work faster.
The team, whose finding has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, is now working on improving the enzyme further to see if they can make it capable of breaking down PET plastics on an industrial scale.
