Escherichia coli is one of the most commonly used host strains for recombinant protein production. More and more research works on the production of recombinant protein indicate that extracellular production throughout a culture medium is more convenient and attractive compared to intracellular production. In present work, inducing temperature and isopropyl β- d -1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) concentration were investigated to decrease the formation of inclusion body and increase the amount of soluble recombinant cutinase initially. Enzyme activity in the culture medium reached to 118.9 U/ml at 64 h of culture, and no inclusion body was detected in cytoplasm under the inducement condition of 0.2 mM IPTG and 30°C. In addition, it was found that a large amount of cutinase had been accumulated in periplasm since 16-h cultivation under the same inducement condition. Therefore, glycine and surfactant sodium taurodeoxycholate (TDOC) were further used to promote the leakage of recombinant cutinase from periplasm. Supplied with 100 mM glycine and 1 mM TDOC, the amount of cutinase in periplasm decreased remarkably, and the activity in the culture medium reached to 146.2 and 149.2 U/ml after 54 h of culturing, respectively.
Biodegradation, particularly via enzymatic degradation, has emerged as an efficient and eco-friendly solution for Poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) pollution. The production of PET hydrolases plays a role in the large-scale enzymatic degradation. However, an effective variant, 4Mz, derived from Thermobifida fusca cutinase (Tfu_0883), was previously associated with a significant reduction in yield when compared to the wild-type enzyme. In this study, a novel cell membrane protection strategy was developed to enhance the yield of 4Mz. This approach increased the yield of 4Mz by 18.2-fold from shaken flasks to 3-L bioreactors, reaching a yield of 3.1 g·L −1 , the highest yield of a PET hydrolase described thus far. In addition, the raw culture broth from 4Mz was applied directly for the enzymatic degradation of PET bottles, achieving a 91.2 % degradation rate. These advancements render the large-scale enzymatic degradation of PET more feasible, thus contributing to the more sustainable management of plastic waste.