Strong and flexible nylon fiber made of engineering bacteria for the first time
Strong and flexible nylon fiber made of engineering bacteria for the first time
researchers have genetically modified microbes that they create a strong, flexible plastic for the first time that is similar to nylon.
In the past, bacteria have been used to create polyester such as polyhydroxyalkanoate (phas). However, the manufacture of nylon-like plastics, as used in the clothing and shoe industry, was a challenge, report the authors in today's edition of Nature Chemical Biology . Data track category = "References"> 1"The work is impressive," says Colin Scott, head of enzyme technology at Uluu, a company based in Perth, Australia, which uses microbes to produce compostable phas of algae.
Around 400 million tons of non -degradable, petroleized plastic waste and microplastics are produced worldwide every year, which endangers wild animals, the health of people and the planets. "This work emphasizes how much biology can do to combat this crisis," says Scott.chop the nature
bacteria naturally produce polymers to store nutrients in times of scarcity. However, the use of bacteria for the production of a nylon -like plastic is difficult because there are no naturally occurring enzymes that can create this type of polymer, explains Mit author Sang Yup Lee, a biomolecular engineer at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daeejeon.
To solve this problem, the researchers modified the genes of different bacteria species and added them as DNA loops, so-called plasmides, in Escherichia coli , a bacterium that is often used for feasibility studies
These genes then encoded several new enzymes that molecular chains could connect to create polymers. The end product was a bioplasty called Poly (Esteramide) or Pea, which mainly consisted of polyester with some nylon -like amid bonds.
nylon is a polymer that consists of 100 % amid bonds, so that it is still a long way to use bacteria to correctly imitate this type of plastic, says Yup Lee.
tests have shown that a kind of Pea has physical, thermal and mechanical properties that are comparable to those of polyethylene, one of the most common commercial plastics.
Seichi Taguchi, organic production engineer at the Kobe University in Japan, notes that it is unlikely that the plastic is as strong as polyethylene due to the low frequency with which the amino acids were integrated into the polymers. Adding an amino acid to a polymer often leads to a chain interruption, which produces shortened polymers with a low molecular weight, he explains.
commercial potential?
- Do you enjoy our latest content?
Register or create an account to continue. - access the latest journalism of the award -winning team from Nature.
- Discover the latest features and opinions on groundbreaking research.
or
google "Data-Track =" Click_login "Data-Track-Context =" Registration Wall Button "Data track label =" Google ">
continue with Google
-
Chae, T. A. et al. Nature Chem. Biol. Https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-025-01842-2 (2025).