Team:ITB Indonesia/Description

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Plastic pollution, especially in the ocean, has always been a very concerning environmental issue, both globally and regionally. PET (polyethylene glycol)-based plastics polluting our ocean are very difficult to degrade (takes 450-1000 for a single plastic bottle to be naturally degraded). Moreover, harsh ocean environment (waves and sunlight) cuts these plastics into very small fragments called microplastics, which size is only several milimeters in diameter. These microplastics make plastic pollution even more hazardous and harder to deal with. Microplastics are commonly unintentionally consumed by marine organisms causing poisoning which leads to deaths. And while normal sized plastics are easy for humans to collect and recycle, in microplastic form, these plastics are impossible to collect, making them an untreatable pollution. Realizing those facts, and seeing that treating plastic pollution is currently one of Indonesia’s main concerns, iGEM ITB 2017 team decides to step in and try to address this seemingly impossible-to-treat issue from synthetic biological perspective. The core of our project is to create a bacterial machine which will be able to 1.) detect the presence of microplastics, 2.) attach and colonize around the microplastics fragments, and 3.) degrades microplastics efficiently. Aside from that, our team plans to also ensure that our bacterial machine will also be able to 4.) utilize microplastics as its nutrition source, further enhancing its efficiency, 5.) grow and survive well in harsh marine environments, and 6.) prevent DNA leaks to nature.

Application and Implication

This project can be applied to treat microplastic pollutions in bodies of water. Especially because treating plastic pollution is a very dire need for Indonesia and also internationally. Its implication includes the reduction of microplastics in treated areas. In case of the oceans, the reduction of microplastics will save million lives of marine organisms which in turn protects biodiversity. Although the grand idea of this project is the degradation of plastics in the ocean. This project can also be applied in plastic degradation projects in reactors. Due to the fact that our bacteria will be able to create a biofilm formation prior to degradation, the degradation action of the enzymes will be more focused around the substrate (PET) thus increasing its degradation effectivity. We predict that our bacterial machine will have a higher effectivity in PET degradation in dry fermentation bioreactors compared to convetional plastic degrading bacteria.

References

Andrady, A.L. 2011. Microplastics in marine environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 62(8): 1596-1605.
Duprey, A., Chansavang, V., Frémion, F., Gonthier, C., Louis, Y., Lejeune, P., dan Dorel, C. 2014. “NiCo Buster”: engineering E. coli for fast and efficient capture of cobalt and nickel. Journal of Biological Engineering. 8(1): 19.
Goller, C., Wang, X., Itoh, Y., dan Romeo, T. 2006. The cation-responsive protein NhaR of Escherichia coli activates pgaABCD transcription, required for production of the biofilm adhesin poly-β-1, 6-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine. Journal of Bacteriology. 188(23): 8022-8032.
Ioakeimidis, C., Fotopoulou, K. N., Karapanagioti, H. K., Geraga, M., Zeri, C., Papathanassiou, E., dan Papatheodorou, G. 2016. The degradation potential of PET bottles in the marine environment: An ATR-FTIR based approach. Scientific Reports. 6(1): 23501.
Lusher, A. L., McHugh, M., dan Thompson, R. C. 2013. Occurrence of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract of pelagic and demersal fish from the English Channel. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 67(1): 94-99.
Sulaiman, S., You, D. J., Kanaya, E., Koga, Y., dan Kanaya, S. 2014. Crystal structure and thermodynamic and kinetic stability of metagenome-derived LC-cutinase. Biochemistry. 53(11): 1858-1869.
Webb, H. K., Crawford, R. J., Sawabe, T., dan Ivanova, E. P. 2009. Poly (ethylene terephthalate) polymer surfaces as a substrate for bacterial attachment and biofilm formation. Microbes and Environments. 24(1): 39-42.
Wei, R., Oeser, T., Schmidt, J., Meier, R., Barth, M., Then, J., dan Zimmermann, W. 2016. Engineered bacterial polyester hydrolases efficiently degrade polyethylene terephthalate due to relieved product inhibition. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 113(8): 1658-1665.
Yoshida, S., Hiraga, K., Takehana, T., Taniguchi, I., Yamaji, H., Maeda, Y., dan Oda, K. 2016. A bacterium that degrades and assimilates polyethylene terephthalate. Science. 351(6278): 1196-1199.