The Application of CRISPR Gene Editing Technology in PET Biodegradation

Abstract

Plastics used in people's daily life bring convenience on the one hand, and on the other hand, a large amount of plastic waste also brings great pollution to the environment. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a polymer polymerization material, which has become one of the most widely used plastics in the world because of its durability and easy processing. The stability of the ecological environment around it is seriously threatened by the large amount of PET used and its difficult degradation.PET even endangered human health. The traditional methods of PET treatment are physical and chemical methods such as incineration, landfill, and heat cracking, etc. Comoared with the first two generations of gene-editing system, CRISPR/Cas9 system has the advantage of easy design, low cost and high efficiency. Currently, the most favorable method of treating PET to protect the environment is biodegradation. This paper introduces the nature of PET and the research progress of PET degradation enzymes, seeking to improve the activity and thermal stability of degradation enzymes by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, this paper explores the construction of mutants with high thermal stability and high degradation activity of the fusion dual enzyme of PETase and MHETase by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology.