Location
CoLab, OCB 100
Start Date
25-4-2024 1:30 PM
Document Type
Poster
Description
Humans have created plastic that is now everywhere on our planet. Much of this plastic gets into the ocean and is eaten by sea creatures which either die or are caught and eaten by humans who then injest the pastic. This can cause serious problems for our ocean ecosystems and also has negative health affects for humans with the problems only getting worse. PETase is an enzyme that was discovered in a lab in Japan in 2016. This enzyme has the special function of being able to break down polyethylene terephthalate, which is the plastic found in plastic bottles. This enzyme could potentially help solve the worlds problem of plastic in the ocean. However, currently the PETase enzyme breaks down plastic only in high temperatures and is too slow to be useful. My project is to create the mutant M10Y of PETase and see if it changes how effectively the enzyme breaks down plastic. I chose M10Y as my mutation because Methionine and Tyrosine are similar amino acids and thus the Mutated DNA is more likely to work than if I picked a less similar amino acid. My data will include the effectiveness of M10Y at breaking down polyethylene terephthalate and at what temperature M10Y functions.
Image
PETase Mutation M10Y
CoLab, OCB 100
Humans have created plastic that is now everywhere on our planet. Much of this plastic gets into the ocean and is eaten by sea creatures which either die or are caught and eaten by humans who then injest the pastic. This can cause serious problems for our ocean ecosystems and also has negative health affects for humans with the problems only getting worse. PETase is an enzyme that was discovered in a lab in Japan in 2016. This enzyme has the special function of being able to break down polyethylene terephthalate, which is the plastic found in plastic bottles. This enzyme could potentially help solve the worlds problem of plastic in the ocean. However, currently the PETase enzyme breaks down plastic only in high temperatures and is too slow to be useful. My project is to create the mutant M10Y of PETase and see if it changes how effectively the enzyme breaks down plastic. I chose M10Y as my mutation because Methionine and Tyrosine are similar amino acids and thus the Mutated DNA is more likely to work than if I picked a less similar amino acid. My data will include the effectiveness of M10Y at breaking down polyethylene terephthalate and at what temperature M10Y functions.
Comments
The faculty mentor for this project was Heather Seitz, Biology.