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Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology

Plastic pollution has emerged as a significant environmental concern in recent years and has prompted the exploration of innovative biotechnological solutions to mitigate plastic’s negative impact. The discovery of enzymes capable of degrading specific types of plastics holds promise as a potential...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barclay, Amelia, Acharya, K. Ravi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10526444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37759807
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom13091407
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author Barclay, Amelia
Acharya, K. Ravi
author_facet Barclay, Amelia
Acharya, K. Ravi
author_sort Barclay, Amelia
collection PubMed
description Plastic pollution has emerged as a significant environmental concern in recent years and has prompted the exploration of innovative biotechnological solutions to mitigate plastic’s negative impact. The discovery of enzymes capable of degrading specific types of plastics holds promise as a potential solution. However, challenges with efficiency, industrial scalability, and the diverse range of the plastic waste in question, have hindered their widespread application. Structural biology provides valuable insights into the intricate interactions between enzymes and plastic materials at an atomic level, and a deeper understanding of their underlying mechanisms is essential to harness their potential to address the mounting plastic waste crisis. This review article examines the current biochemical and biophysical methods that may facilitate the development of enzymes capable of degrading polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most extensively used plastics. It also discusses the challenges that must be addressed before substantial advancements can be achieved in using these enzymes as a solution to the plastic pollution problem.
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spelling pubmed-105264442023-09-28 Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology Barclay, Amelia Acharya, K. Ravi Biomolecules Review Plastic pollution has emerged as a significant environmental concern in recent years and has prompted the exploration of innovative biotechnological solutions to mitigate plastic’s negative impact. The discovery of enzymes capable of degrading specific types of plastics holds promise as a potential solution. However, challenges with efficiency, industrial scalability, and the diverse range of the plastic waste in question, have hindered their widespread application. Structural biology provides valuable insights into the intricate interactions between enzymes and plastic materials at an atomic level, and a deeper understanding of their underlying mechanisms is essential to harness their potential to address the mounting plastic waste crisis. This review article examines the current biochemical and biophysical methods that may facilitate the development of enzymes capable of degrading polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most extensively used plastics. It also discusses the challenges that must be addressed before substantial advancements can be achieved in using these enzymes as a solution to the plastic pollution problem. MDPI 2023-09-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10526444/ /pubmed/37759807 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom13091407 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Barclay, Amelia
Acharya, K. Ravi
Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology
title Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology
title_full Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology
title_fullStr Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology
title_full_unstemmed Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology
title_short Engineering Plastic Eating Enzymes Using Structural Biology
title_sort engineering plastic eating enzymes using structural biology
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10526444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37759807
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biom13091407
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