%0 Journal Article
%A Heras Márquez, Diego
%A Robles Martín, Ana.
%A Amigot Sánchez, Rafael
%A Fernández López, Laura
%A González Alfonso, José L
%A Roda, Sergi
%A Alcolea Rodríguez, Víctor
%A Heras Márquez, Diego
%A Almendral, Diego
%A Coscolín, Cristina
%A Plou, Francisco J
%A Portela, Raquel
%A Bañares, Miguel Ángel
%A Martínez Del Pozo, Álvaro
%A García Linares, Sara
%A Ferrer, Manuel
%A Guallar, Víctor
%T Sub-micro- and nano-sized polyethylene terephthalate deconstruction with engineered protein nanopores
%D 2023
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/112760
%X The identification or design of biocatalysts to mitigate the accumulation of plastics, including sub-micro- and nano-sized polyethylene terephthalate (nPET), is becoming a global challenge. Here we computationally incorporated two hydrolytic active sites with geometries similar to that of Idionella sakaiensis PET hydrolase, to fragaceatoxin C (FraC), a membrane pore-forming protein. FraCm1/m2 could be assembled into octameric nanopores (7.0 nm high × 1.6–6.0 nm entry), which deconstructed (40 °C, pH 7.0) nPET from GoodFellow, commodities and plastic bottles. FraCm1 and FraCm2 degrade nPET by endo- and exo-type chain scission. While FraCm1 produces bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate as the main product, FraCm2 yields a high diversity of oligomers and terephthalic acid. Mechanistic and biochemical differences with benchmark PET hydrolases, along with pore and nPET dynamics, suggest that these pore-forming protein catalytic nanoreactors do not deconstruct macro-PET but are promising in nanotechnology for filtering, capturing and breaking down nPET, for example, in wastewater treatment plants.
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