Efficient polyethylene terephthalate degradation at moderate temperature: a protein engineering study of LC-cutinase highlights the key role of residue 243

Enzymatic degradation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is becoming a reality because of the identification of novel PET-hydrolysing enzymes (PHEs) and the engineering of evolved enzyme variants. Here, improved variants of leaf-branch compost cutinase (LCC), a thermostable enzyme isolated by a metagenomic approach, were generated by a semi-rational protein engineering approach. Starting from a deleted LCC form lacking the secretion signal (ΔLCC), single and double variants possessing a higher activity on PET were isolated. The single-point F243T ΔLCC variant partially (~ 67%) depolymerized amorphous PET film producing ~ 21.9 mm of products after 27 h of reaction at 72 °C. The S101N/F243T ΔLCC double variant reached a further increase in activity on PET. Notably, for both single and double variants the highest conversion yield was obtained at 55 °C. Kinetics studies and molecular dynamics simulations support that a slight decreased affinity for PET is responsible for the superior degradation performance of the S101N/F243T variant and that this stems from a slightly higher flexibility of the active site region close to position 243. Furthermore, our findings question the need for a high reaction temperature for PET degradation, at least for LCC: at ≥ 70 °C, the conversion of amorphous PET into a more crystalline polymer, resistant to enzymatic hydrolysis, is favoured. The evolved S101N/F243T ΔLCC variant is able to depolymerize fully 1.3 g of untreated postconsumer PET waste in ≤ 3 days at 55 °C (using 1.25 mg of enzyme only), this making PET enzymatic degradation by engineering LCC a more ecofriendly and sustainable process.