Team:METU Turkey

Degredo PETronum!

ABSTRACT

The usage of polyethylene terephthalate-PET (as like plastic bottles or textiles) is one of the big problems of our era. Many plastic bottles are not reusable and are not safe for hot liquids or for use in dishwashers or microwaves. Some tougher, reusable plastic bottles may cause cancer. The main disadvantage of plastic bottles is that so many of them end up in landfills instead of being recycled. It takes thousands of years for plastic bottles to biodegrade, and the degrading process emits toxic chemicals into the air. We may alter the destiny of plastic in useful way.

OUR MISSION

Our project aims to clean enviroment with the degredation of PET to pyruvate by E.coli. With this project,while the environment will be cleaned from PET, the E.coli would add pyruvate to the cell cycle and use it as a new source. We divide our project into two parts. At the first part we found gene design for converting the PET into 2-hydroxymuconate semialdehyde in iGEM database. The arrangement at the bottom explains the first part:

PET (polyethylene terephthalate)

TPA(terephthalic acid)

DCD ((1R,2S)-dihydroxy-3,5-cyclohexadiene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid)

PCA (protocatechuic acid)

Catechol

2-hydroxymuconate semialdehyde

At the second part, we wanted to go further and researched the gene parts for convertion of 2-hydroxymuconate semialdehyde into pyruvate. This part will give us the chance of adding new parts to iGEM database. In this arrangement, it can be observed in detail:

2-hydroxymuconate semialdehyde

2-oxopent-4-enoate

4-hydroxy-2-oxopentanoate

Pyruvate

How does our project work?

Totally degradation of PET to pyruvate is done by E. coli.

Who will our project help?

Our project will help the environment to become cleaner.

Why did we choose this project?

The biodegradation of plastic bottles took thousands of years, and the degrading process emits toxic chemicals into the air. Our project aims to clean enviroment with the degredation of PET to pyruvate by E.coli. With this project,while the environment will be cleaned from PET, the E.coli would add pyruvate to the cell cycle and use it as a new source.