Robust cellular transformations of PET deconstruction products by import of glycol esters

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.
Log in to save this article

Abstract

Efforts to transform polyethylene terephthalate (PET) deconstruction products using live cells have been limited by terephthalic acid (TPA) uptake. Here, we used an intracellular carboxylate reduction assay to show that apparent TPA uptake in E. coli cells that lack a dedicated TPA transporter sharply increases between pH 5-6. Furthermore, we discovered that glycol ester deconstruction products, mono(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (MHET) and bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), surprisingly each result in rapid pH-independent uptake. We exploited glycol ester uptake along with deletion of 22 cellular oxidoreductases to design intracellular hydrolysis routes for synthesis of upcycled reduction products from BHET at >90% yields, and from real PET wastes after tandem catalytic glycolysis and cell-based valorization at >80% combined yields. Our work has important ramifications for PET utilization by cells and adds new perspectives on the evolution of the PETase/MHETase system.

Article activity feed