聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯生物降解的研究进展

塑料广泛存在于人类的日常生活中,在给人们生活带来便利的同时,大量塑料废物也给环境带来很大压力。聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(polyethylene terephthalate, PET)是一种以石油为原料的高分子热塑性材料,因其具有耐用、透明度高、重量轻等特性,已成为世界上使用最广泛的塑料之一。由于PET具有结构复杂以及难降解的特性,可在自然界中长期存在,不仅对全球生态环境造成严重的污染,而且已经威胁到人类健康。如何对PET废弃物进行降解已成为全球的难题之一,相较于物理法和化学法,生物降解法是目前处理PET废弃物最为绿色环保的方法。本文分别介绍了微生物和生物酶对PET生物降解的研究现状、PET的生物降解途径、PET生物降解机制以及PET降解酶的分子改造等方面的研究,并对如何实现PET的高效降解、寻找和改造可降解高结晶度PET的微生物或酶进行展望,为PET的生物降解微生物或酶的有效开发应用提供理论依据。

Biodegradation of polyethylene terephthalate: a review

Plastics are widely used in human daily life, which bring great convenience. Nevertheless, the disposal of a large amount of plastic wastes also brings great pressure to the environment. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a polymer thermoplastic material produced from petroleum. It has become one of the most commonly used plastics in the world due to its durability, high transparency, light weight and other characteristics. PET can exist in nature for a long time due to its complex structure and the difficulty in degradation, which causes serious pollution to the global ecological environment, and threatens human health. The degradation of PET wastes has since become one of the global challenges. Compared with physical and chemical methods, biodegradation is the greenest way for treating PET wastes. This review summarizes the recent advances on PET biodegradation including microbial and enzymatic degradation of PET, biodegradation pathway, biodegradation mechanisms, and molecular modification of PET-degrading enzymes. In addition, the prospect for achieveing efficient degradation of PET, searching and improving microorganisms or enzymes that can degrade PET of high crystallinity are presented, with the aimto facilitate the development, application and molecular modification of PET biodegradation microorganisms or enzymes.