"
Team:ITB Indonesia
From 2014.igem.org
What is PET?
PET or polyethylene terephthalate is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family. This plastic has a characteristic of undegradable by bacteria. Overproduction of this plastic may result in polluting the environment and cause a great impact for any living things that live in the environment.
Why we must degrade plastic?
As we know, plastic takes 500 or even 1000 years to degrade by process called photodegradation rather than biodegradation. Knowing this fact, it is necessary to degrade the plastic to reduce the quantity of plastic in the environment. Therefore, a brilliant, effective, and efficient degradation method is important, otherwise, the plastic itself will threatening the environment and affected the life of animal and human that lives in there.
How ColiPlasTer work?
ColiPlasTer is Escherichia coli plastic terminator. These bacteria have a capability to degrade plastic by producing an esterase enzyme that fastens plastic degradation process. This enzyme will degrade plastic to its monomer and using it as a carbon source to sustain the bacteria's life. Therefore, no pollutants produce as a result of this degradation process.
