Research Projects

The proposed work aims to decipher e-plastic degrading genes, key proteins/enzymes and biodegraded intermediates to establish biodegradation machinery needed to degrade the e-plastic (ABS/HIPS blend) by Pseudomonas lalkuanensis sp. nov. and it will also predict the metabolic pathway which will elucidate the breakdown process of the polymer. To achieve the objectives of the study, bacterium will be grown in different conditions with e-plastic as sole carbon source and without e-plastic to analyse biodegrading genes through illumina based RNA-seq analysis using draft genome of the bacterium as reference. Differentially expressed genes will be analysed and validated through quantitative real-time PCR. Simultaneously, differential proteomic analysis will reveal key proteins involved in biodegradation through gel free based approach using LC-MS/MS analysis and in silico analysis. In the process, biodegraded intermediates will be characterized using LC-MS analysis to authenticate the biodegradation of e-plastic. Finally, all the resultant data will be integrated to predict the biodegradation pathway. Therefore, the proposed work offers to serve as a clean environmental remediation strategy for biological recycling of e-plastic waste. Moreover, the identified proteins/enzymes will facilitate studying their molecular structure for future exploration in advanced biodegradation.