Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41960418›Full record

ArticleACS sustainable chemistry & engineering2026

Production and Evaluation of Fluorophore-Doped Polymer Substrates to Screen for Plastic-Degrading Enzymes.

Anton A Stepnov, Brenna Norton-Baker, Esteban Lopez-Tavera, Ravindra R Chowreddy, Vincent G H Eijsink, Gregg T Beckham, Gustav Vaaje-Kolstad

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in ACS sustainable chemistry & engineering, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Anton A StepnovFaculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås 1433, Norway.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6754-5852
Brenna Norton-BakerRenewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Laboratory of the Rockies, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States.
Esteban Lopez-TaveraFaculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås 1433, Norway.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0698-5339
Ravindra R ChowreddyNorner Research AS, Porsgrunn NO-3920, Norway.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9164-5530
Vincent G H EijsinkFaculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås 1433, Norway.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9220-8743
Gregg T BeckhamRenewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Laboratory of the Rockies, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3480-212X
Gustav Vaaje-KolstadFaculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås 1433, Norway.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3077-8003

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Fast and sensitive analytical methods are the key to efficient screening of plastic-degrading enzymes. Here, we present a streamlined and affordable approach to assess the enzymatic deconstruction of insoluble synthetic polymers by blending them with a fluorescent dye, rhodamine 6G, and we evaluate this screening method using poly-(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) as a model material. Our results indicate that enzymatic depolymerization of the rhodamine-doped PET can be observed in a high-throughput fashion by following release of the fluorophore. The fluorescence data obtained during the hydrolysis of rhodamine-doped PET by 14 PET hydrolases, produced with a robotic platform, correlated with the quantitative chromatographic analysis of PET degradation products. Remarkably, the use of the rhodamine-loaded PET substrate resulted in negligibly low background signals even when detecting PETase activity in crude cell lysates, suggesting suitability for screening of a wide variety of samples. Encouraged by these results, we next produced a selection of polyethylene- and nylon-based materials loaded with rhodamine 6G. While rapid leaching of fluorophore observed with nylon substrates limits the utility of the method for detecting nylonase activity, the rhodamine-loaded polyethylene showed promising performance in passive diffusion tests, indicating that this latter substrate may be used to screen for polyolefin-degrading enzymes.

Indexed as

activity screeningmelt blendingmethod developmentplastic-active enzymespolymer chemistry

Identifiers

PMID41960418
PMCPMC13058888

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.