| 초록 |
The increased production and use of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is responsible for the generation of microplastics, contributing to the environmental contamination. Microplastics poses a biological burden for organisms which reaches humans through the food chain, and exerts toxic effects on human health. The current microplastic removal technologies have certain limitations like high cost and energy consumption, hence more efficient strategies need to be devised. The biodegradation of microplastics through a plastic-degrading enzyme called PETase can reduce microplastics in an environment-friendly and energy-efficient way. PETase degrades PET, the main component of microplastics, into monomers. Although biodegradation using enzymes has several advantages, it has some disadvantages as well such as instability and one-time use. To overcome these shortcomings, the PETase was expressed on the surface of bacteria, which has high-efficiency expression and reusability. In this study, the enzyme activity of conventional and surface-expressed bacterial PETase were compared, and the reusability was investigated by repeating the PET degrading experiment of surface-expressed bacteria. |
