Capture and degradation of micro-plastics by a synthetic biology approach to engineer novel PET-degrading enzyme linked amyloid nano-material

通过合成生物学方法捕获和降解微塑料，以设计新型 PET 降解酶联淀粉样蛋白纳米材料

• 批准号: 2873238
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Kent
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2873238
• 关键词: Capture; degradation; micro; plastics; synthetic

Accumulation of microplastic waste in the environment is a costly and ongoing societal challenge that can potentially be addressed through the recent discovery of enzymes that are able to degrade Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and recycle it into its constituent building blocks. However, no efficient materials applications currently exist that utilise these enzymes. This project will use a synthetic biology approach to engineer a novel biomaterial based on linking PET degrading enzymes onto functional amyloid fibrils formed from the yeast protein Sup35NM as scaffold. Amyloid fibrils are a type of protein structures with a characteristic fibrous shape. Some amyloid fibrils are well-known to be associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and systemic amyloidosis. However, many amyloid structures are beneficial, or "functional" in that they fill essential biological roles, for example the functional amyloid protein Sup35 from Baker's yeast. Sup35 forms amyloid fibrils in yeast cells and this allows it to functions normally as a molecular switch. Importantly, Sup35 has three parts and only two of these are required to make the amyloid fibrils, these two parts are known as Sup35NM. We intend to replace the 3rd part with enzymes such as PETase which could functionalise the Sup35NM amyloid fibrils and imbue them with PET degrading functionality. Collaborative work in the Xue and von der Haar labs has already generated the first Sup35NM-PETase WT fusion protein, demonstrating the feasibility and the training potential of this project. In this project, the successful PhD candidate will generate new fusion proteins containing recently discovered PETase sequences with mutations that enhance their activity. They will then assemble synthetic filaments as well as meshes, and characterise the structure and the PET degrading activity of the materials made.

微塑料废物在环境中的积累是一个代价高昂且持续存在的社会挑战，通过最近发现的能够降解聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）并将其回收为其组成单元的酶，可能会解决这个问题。然而，目前还没有利用这些酶的高效材料应用。该项目将使用合成生物学方法设计一种新型生物材料，该材料基于将PET降解酶连接到由酵母蛋白Sup35NM形成的功能性淀粉样原纤维上作为支架。淀粉样原纤维是一种具有纤维状特征的蛋白质结构。众所周知，一些淀粉样蛋白原纤维与阿尔茨海默病、帕金森病和全身性淀粉样变性等疾病有关。然而，许多淀粉样蛋白结构是有益的，或“功能性的”，因为它们填补了基本的生物学角色，例如贝克酵母中的功能性淀粉样蛋白Sup35。Sup35在酵母细胞中形成淀粉样原纤维，这使它能够正常发挥分子开关的作用。重要的是，Sup35有三个部分，其中只有两个部分是制造淀粉样蛋白原纤维所必需的，这两个部分被称为Sup35NM。我们打算用酶替代第三部分，如PETase，它可以使Sup35NM淀粉样蛋白原纤维功能化，并赋予它们PET降解功能。Xue和von der Haar实验室的合作工作已经产生了第一个Sup35NM-PETase WT融合蛋白，证明了该项目的可行性和培训潜力。在这个项目中，成功的博士候选人将产生新的融合蛋白，其中包含最近发现的具有增强其活性的突变的PETase序列。然后，他们将组装合成长丝和网格，并表征所制成材料的结构和PET降解活性。