<p>In view of the ubiquity of plastic waste worldwide, the Uppsala PETerminator project targeted the communities most upset by plastic pollution. We wanted to establish a metabolic pathway within <em>E. coli</em> that could convert plastic waste, or at least components of plastic waste, to valuable chemicals. These included protocatechuic acid and vanillic acid.<br>Inspiration for the PETerminator project came from several groundbreaking publications of the last several decades. Among these, two papers highlighted the star enzymes of the PETErminator pathway: PET hydrolase (PETase) and (MHETase). Our team also drew inspiration from previous work by iGEM teams at Yale and UCL.</p>
<imgstyle="width: 50%;"src='https://static.igem.wiki/teams/4378/wiki/img/human-practices/integrated/plastic-floating.jpg'alt="Pexels, Rubbish floating in blue water of sea">