Biodegradation of poly(ester-urethane) coatings by Halopseudomonas formosensis

Impranil® DLN-SD is a poly(ester-urethane) (PEU) that is widely used as coating material for textiles to fine-tune and improve their properties. Since coatings increase the complexity of such plastic materials, they can pose a hindrance for sustainable end-of-life solutions of plastics using enzymes or microorganisms. In this study, we isolated Halopseudomonas formosensis FZJ due to its ability to grow on Impranil DLN-SD and other PEUs as sole carbon sources. The isolated strain was exceptionally thermotolerant as it could degrade Impranil DLN-SD at up to 50°C. We identified several putative extracellular hydrolases of which the polyester hydrolase Hfor_PE-H showed substrate degradation of Impranil DLN-SD and thus was purified and characterized in detail. Hfor_PE-H showed moderate temperature stability (Tm = 53.9°C) and exhibited activity towards Impranil DLN-SD as well as polyethylene terephthalate. Moreover, we revealed the enzymatic release of monomers from Impranil DLN-SD by Hfor_PE-H using GC-ToF-MS and could decipher the associated metabolic pathways in H. formosensis FZJ. Overall, this study provides detailed insights into the microbial and enzymatic degradation of PEU coatings, thereby deepening our understanding of microbial coating degradation in both contained and natural environments. Moreover, the study highlights the relevance of the genus Halopseudomonas and especially the novel isolate and its enzymes for future bio-upcycling processes of coated plastic materials.

An archaeal lid-containing feruloyl esterase degrades polyethylene terephthalate

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a commodity polymer known to globally contaminate marine and terrestrial environments. Today, around 80 bacterial and fungal PET-active enzymes (PETases) are known, originating from four bacterial and two fungal phyla. In contrast, no archaeal enzyme had been identified to degrade PET. Here we report on the structural and biochemical characterization of PET46 (RLI42440.1), an archaeal promiscuous feruloyl esterase exhibiting degradation activity on semi-crystalline PET powder comparable to IsPETase and LCC (wildtypes), and higher activity on bis-, and mono-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET and MHET). The enzyme, found by a sequence-based metagenome search, is derived from a non-cultivated, deep-sea Candidatus Bathyarchaeota archaeon. Biochemical characterization demonstrated that PET46 is a promiscuous, heat-adapted hydrolase. Its crystal structure was solved at a resolution of 1.71 Å. It shares the core alpha/beta-hydrolase fold with bacterial PETases, but contains a unique lid common in feruloyl esterases, which is involved in substrate binding. Thus, our study widens the currently known diversity of PET-hydrolyzing enzymes, by demonstrating PET depolymerization by a plant cell wall-degrading esterase.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa responds to altered membrane phospholipid composition by adjusting the production of two-component systems, proteases and iron uptake proteins

Membrane protein and phospholipid (PL) composition changes in response to environmental cues and during infections. To achieve these, bacteria use adaptation mechanisms involving covalent modification and remodelling of the acyl chain length of PLs. However, little is known about bacterial pathways regulated by PLs. Here, we investigated proteomic changes in the biofilm of P. aeruginosa phospholipase mutant (∆plaF) with altered membrane PL composition. The results revealed profound alterations in the abundance of many biofilm-related two-component systems (TCSs), including accumulation of PprAB, a key regulator of the transition to biofilm. Furthermore, a unique phosphorylation pattern of transcriptional regulators, transporters and metabolic enzymes, as well as differential production of several proteases, in ∆plaF, indicate that PlaF-mediated virulence adaptation involves complex transcriptional and posttranscriptional response. Moreover, proteomics and biochemical assays revealed the depletion of pyoverdine-mediated iron uptake pathway proteins in ∆plaF, while proteins from alternative iron-uptake systems were accumulated. These suggest that PlaF may function as a switch between different iron-acquisition pathways. The observation that PL-acyl chain modifying and PL synthesis enzymes were overproduced in ∆plaF reveals the interconnection of degradation, synthesis and modification of PLs for proper membrane homeostasis. Although the precise mechanism by which PlaF simultaneously affects multiple pathways remains to be elucidated, we suggest that alteration of PL composition in ∆plaF plays a role for the global adaptive response in P. aeruginosa mediated by TCSs and proteases. Our study revealed the global regulation of virulence and biofilm by PlaF and suggests that targeting this enzyme may have therapeutic potential.

Organic-Solvent-Tolerant Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases for Organic Synthesis

Biocatalysis has emerged as an important tool in synthetic organic chemistry enabling the chemical industry to execute reactions with high regio- or enantioselectivity and under usually mild reaction conditions while avoiding toxic waste. Target substrates and products of reactions catalyzed by carboxylic ester hydrolases are often poorly water soluble and require organic solvents, whereas enzymes are evolved by nature to be active in cells, i.e., in aqueous rather than organic solvents. Therefore, biocatalysts that withstand organic solvents are urgently needed. Current strategies to identify such enzymes rely on laborious tests carried out by incubation in different organic solvents and determination of residual activity. Here, we describe a simple assay useful for screening large libraries of carboxylic ester hydrolases for resistance and activity in water-miscible organic solvents. We have screened a set of 26 enzymes, most of them identified in this study, with four different water-miscible organic solvents. The triglyceride tributyrin was used as a substrate, and fatty acids released by enzymatic hydrolysis were detected by a pH shift indicated by the indicator dye nitrazine yellow. With this strategy, we succeeded in identifying a novel highly organic-solvent-tolerant esterase from Pseudomonas aestusnigri In addition, the newly identified enzymes were tested with sterically demanding substrates, which are common in pharmaceutical intermediates, and two enzymes from Alcanivorax borkumensis were identified which outcompeted the gold standard ester hydrolase CalB from Candida antarcticaIMPORTANCE Major challenges hampering biotechnological applications of esterases include the requirement to accept nonnatural and chemically demanding substrates and the tolerance of the enzymes toward organic solvents which are often required to solubilize such substrates. We describe here a high-throughput screening strategy to identify novel organic-solvent-tolerant carboxylic ester hydrolases (CEs). Among these enzymes, CEs active against water-insoluble bulky substrates were identified. Our results thus contribute to fostering the identification and biotechnological application of CEs.

Agar plate-based screening methods for the identification of polyester hydrolysis by Pseudomonas species

Hydrolases acting on polyesters like cutin, polycaprolactone or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are of interest for several biotechnological applications like waste treatment, biocatalysis and sustainable polymer modifications. Recent studies suggest that a large variety of such enzymes are still to be identified and explored in a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas. For activity-based screening, methods have been established using agar plates which contain nanoparticles of polycaprolactone or PET prepared by solvent precipitation and evaporation. In this protocol article, we describe a straightforward agar plate-based method using emulsifiable artificial polyesters as substrates, namely Impranil® DLN and liquid polycaprolactone diol (PLD). Thereby, the currently quite narrow set of screening substrates is expanded. We also suggest optional pre-screening with short-chain and middle-chain-length triglycerides as substrates to identify enzymes with lipolytic activity to be further tested for polyesterase activity. We applied these assays to experimentally demonstrate polyesterase activity in bacteria from the P. pertucinogena lineage originating from contaminated soils and diverse marine habitats.

[Contractile elements in proliferative retinal diseases]

Contraction of epiretinal membranes remains the leading cause of failure in retinal surgery. The mechanism of contraction of cellular units is as yet unknown. We have used immunohistochemical methods to demonstrate the intracellular localization of the proteins actin, myosin, tropomyosin and vinculin, which are thought to be responsible for cellular contraction, in 26 surgically obtained epiretinal traction membranes from patients with traumatic (n = 12) and idiopathic (n = 7) proliferative vitreoretinopathy, and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (n = 7). The use of cell marker proteins for glial cells (GFAP) and retinal pigment epithelium (cytokeratin) demonstrates that the prevalence of contractile components is independent of cellular construction. We suggest that an intracellular mechanism is responsible for the contraction of epiretinal membranes in proliferative vitreoretinal disorders.