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Novel polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic degrading enzymes from the environmental metagenome
  • Isuru Karunatillaka,
  • Lukasz Jaroszewski,
  • Adam Godzik
Isuru Karunatillaka
University of California Riverside College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Corresponding Author:ikaru001@ucr.edu

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Lukasz Jaroszewski
University of California Riverside School of Medicine
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Adam Godzik
University of California Riverside School of Medicine
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Abstract

Several plastic degrading enzymes have been described in the literature, most notably PETases that are capable of hydrolyzing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. One of them, the PETase from Ideonella sakaiensis, a bacterium isolated from environmental samples within a PET bottle recycling site, was the subject of extensive studies. To test how widespread PETase functionality is in other bacterial communities, we used a cascade of BLAST searches in the JGI metagenomic datasets and showed that PETases can also be found in other metagenomic environmental samples from both human affected and relatively pristine sites. To confirm their classification as PETases, we verified that the newly identified proteins have the PETase sequence signatures common to all PETases and that phylogenetic analyses group them with the experimentally characterized PETases. Additionally, docking analysis was performed in order to further confirm the functional assignment of the putative environmental PETases.
04 Dec 2020Submitted to PROTEINS: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics
07 Dec 2020Submission Checks Completed
07 Dec 2020Assigned to Editor
31 Dec 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
22 Jan 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
04 Mar 2021Editorial Decision: Revise Major
02 Aug 20211st Revision Received
03 Aug 2021Submission Checks Completed
03 Aug 2021Assigned to Editor
03 Aug 2021Reviewer(s) Assigned
12 Aug 2021Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
18 Aug 2021Editorial Decision: Accept