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Title: Increased cytoplasmic expression of PETase enzymes in E. coli
Abstract BackgroundDepolymerizing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics using enzymes, such as PETase, offers a sustainable chemical recycling route. To enhance degradation, many groups have sought to engineer PETase for faster catalysis on PET and elevated stability. Considerably less effort has been focused toward expressing large quantities of the enzyme, which is necessary for large-scale application and widespread use. In this work, we evaluated severalE. colistrains for their potential to produce soluble, folded, and activeIsPETase, and moved the production to a benchtop bioreactor. As PETase is known to require disulfide bonds to be functional, we screened several disulfide-bond promoting strains ofE. colito produceIsPETase, FAST-PETase and Hot-PETase. ResultsWe found expression in SHuffle T7 Express results in higher active expression ofIsPETase compared to standardE. coliproduction strains such as BL21(DE3), reaching a purified titer of 20 mg enzyme per L of culture from shake flasks using 2xLB medium. We characterized purifiedIsPETase on 4-nitrophenyl acetate and PET microplastics, showing the enzyme produced in the disulfide-bond promoting host has high activity. Using a complex medium with glycerol and a controlled bioreactor,IsPETase titer reached 104 mg per L for a 46-h culture. FAST-PETase was found to be produced at similar levels in BL21(DE3) or SHuffle T7 Express, with purified production reaching 65 mg per L culture when made in BL21(DE3). Hot-PETase titers were greatest in BL21(DE3) reaching 77 mg per L culture. ConclusionsWe provide protein expression methods to produce three important PETase variants. Importantly, forIsPETase, changing expression host, medium optimization and movement to a bioreactor resulted in a 50-fold improvement in production amount with a per cell dry weight productivity of 0.45 mgPETasegCDW−1 h−1, which is tenfold greater than that forK. pastoris. We show that the benefit of using SHuffle T7 Express for expression only extends toIsPETase, with FAST-PETase and Hot-PETase better produced and purified from BL21(DE3), which is unexpected given the number of cysteines present. This work represents a systematic evaluation of protein expression and purification conditions for PETase variants to permit further study of these important enzymes.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2309899 2309898 2103647
PAR ID:
10629857
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Springer
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Microbial Cell Factories
Volume:
23
Issue:
1
ISSN:
1475-2859
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
PETase, Protein expression, Protein purification, SHuffle, Bioreactor
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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