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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Industrial Biotechnology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1520680
This article is part of the Research Topic Closing the Loop: Enhancing Biotechnological Routes for a More Circular Economy Transition View all articles

Activity of an anaerobic Thermoanaerobacterales hydrolase on aliphatic and aromatic polyester Authors

Provisionally accepted
Chiara Siracusa Chiara Siracusa 1,2Lisa Fohler Lisa Fohler 2Lukas Leibetseder Lukas Leibetseder 2Gerald Striedner Gerald Striedner 2Chris Oostenbrink Chris Oostenbrink 2Felice Quartinello Felice Quartinello 1Georg M Guebitz Georg M Guebitz 1,2Doris Ribitsch Doris Ribitsch 1,2*
  • 1 Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB), Graz, Austria
  • 2 University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study focuses on the biochemical characterization of a new hydrolase (Thb) expressed from anaerobic Thermoanaerobacterales which could be used to improve biogas plants efficiency for plastic waste treatment. The specificity of Thb for various polyesters including poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), poly(butylene adipate terephthalate) (PBAT), poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), poly(lactic acid)(PLA) was compared to the well-studied cutinase HiC from Humicola insolens. Based on gravimetric analysis and quantification (High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)) of monomers solubilised upon enzymatic hydrolysis, Thb was found to be more active on aromatic polyesters while HiC led to a higher amount of hydrolysis products on aliphatic polyesters (PBS, PLA). Polyester hydrolysis was further investigated by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Infrared Spectroscopy. Comparison of the two enzyme structures indicated the higher aromatic character in specific region of Thb surface as a possible reason for these differences in specificity.

    Keywords: Enzyme based recycling, polymer processing, biochemical characterization, aromatic polyesters, aliphatic polyesters C.S.: investigation, data curation, writing, F.Q.: supervision, investigation, methodology, L.F. and L.L. investigation and writing, C.O.: formal analysis, G.G. and D.R.: supervision, writing editing, project administration

    Received: 31 Oct 2024; Accepted: 24 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Siracusa, Fohler, Leibetseder, Striedner, Oostenbrink, Quartinello, Guebitz and Ribitsch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Doris Ribitsch, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Vienna, 1180, Vienna, Austria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.