Computational engineering of the polyester hydrolase PHL7 for efficient poly(ethylene terephthalate) degradation in biocatalytic recycling processes
Georg Künze
Nature Communications, Published online: 15 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-70868-4 Enzymatic PET depolymerization offers a sustainable method for the recycling of post-consumer PET waste, but the low stability and activity of some of PET-degrading enzymes hinders their practical application. Here, the authors engineer Polyester Hydrolase Leipzig 7 (PHL7), a PET hydrolase derived from a compost metagenome, and obtain variants with melting temperatures of 88-95 °C and more than 110- fold higher