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Conversion of Polyethylenes into Fungal Secondary Metabolites
Rabot, Chris Chen, Yuhao Bijlani, Swati Chiang, YiāMing Oakley, C. Elizabeth Oakley, Berl R. Williams, Travis J. Wang, Clay C. C.
Rabot, Chris
Chen, Yuhao
Bijlani, Swati
Chiang, YiāMing
Oakley, C. Elizabeth
Oakley, Berl R.
Williams, Travis J.
Wang, Clay C. C.
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Abstract
Waste plastics represent major environmental and economic burdens due to their ubiquity, slow breakdown rates, and inadequacy of current recycling routes. Polyethylenes are particularly problematic, because they lack robust recycling approaches despite being the most abundant plastics in use today. We report a novel chemical and biological approach for the rapid conversion of polyethylenes into structurally complex and pharmacologically active compounds. We present conditions for aerobic, catalytic digestion of polyethylenes collected from postāconsumer and oceanic waste streams, creating carboxylic diacids that can then be used as a carbon source by the fungus Aspergillus nidulans. As a proof of principle, we have engineered strains of A. nidulans to synthesize the fungal secondary metabolites asperbenzaldehyde, citreoviridin, and mutilin when grown on these digestion products. This hybrid approach considerably expands the range of products to which polyethylenes can be upcycled.
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Date
2022-11-03
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Publisher
Wiley
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Keywords
Biosynthesis, Catalysis, Polyethylenes, Synthetic Biology, Upcycling
Citation
Rabot, C., Chen, Y., Bijlani, S., Chiang, Y. M., Oakley, C. E., Oakley, B. R., Williams, T. J., & Wang, C. C. C. (2023). Conversion of Polyethylenes into Fungal Secondary Metabolites. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English), 62(4), e202214609. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202214609