ArticleEnvironmental science & technology2025
Functional Enrichment and Sequence-Based Discovery Identify Promiscuous and Efficient Poly Lactic Acid Degrading Enzymes.
Article in Environmental science & technology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Polyesterase activity and thermostability of carboxylesterases from Thermoleophilum album YS-3.The FEBS journal · 2026Article
- Plastic-Degrading Microorganisms: Biodegradation Pathways and Habitat Origins.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Rethinking plastic waste: innovations in enzymatic breakdown of oil-based polyesters and bioplastics.FEBS open bio · 2026Review
- Bridging Green Chemistry and Circular Economy: A Pathway to Sustainable Polyester Plastics Through Feedstock, Synthesis, and Waste Upcycling.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- The discovery of new metagenomic urethanases utilising a novel colorimetric assay for applications in the biodegradation of polyurethanes.Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The recalcitrance of petroleum-based plastics to recycling has prompted the use of alternative compostable materials such as poly lactic acid (PLA) and polybutylene terephthalate coadipate (PBAT). However, current preferred end-of-life waste management solutions, such as aerobic composting and anaerobic digestion, are not optimal for bioplastics, due to their slow and variable degradation rates. Thus, the isolation of novel microbes and their plastic-degrading enzymes is necessary to improve existing bioplastic disposal and create more sustainable routes to valorize waste plastic. In this study, through functional enrichment cultures, we isolated 14 unique microbes capable of PLA and PBAT degradation and applied a computational discovery pipeline to identify plastic-degrading enzymes. Through this, a focused set of 97 enzymes was functionally characterized, finding three active PLA-degrading enzymes. The two most active enzymes, JW45_1534 and JW44_1708, displayed broad polyester degrading activity against PLA, PBAT, PBSA, PCL, and Impranil polyurethane. Uniquely, under optimized reaction conditions, JW44_1708 fully solubilized low-molecular-weight PLA powder (100-500 mM lactic acid equivalents) in 18 h at 30 °C, with 43-65% conversion to monomeric lactic acid. Overall, we demonstrate the effectiveness of functional enrichment with single-pass computational filtering and screening for finding highly active PLA-degrading enzymes with the potential to improve PLA end-of-life waste management solutions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.