Investigating the Enzymatic Mechanism in Polystyrene Degradation: The Computational Modeling Approach

Abstract

Polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam, poses an urgent problem in today’s environmental context. The material resists degradation, allowing it to accumulate in aquatic environments and indirectly enter the food chain as microplastics. While current research has focused on the merits of biodegrading this material, and several microorganisms have been identified to have this capability, the specific enzymatic mechanism through which degradation occurs has not been identified. This research aims to identify a potential mechanism between an identified enzyme (alkane-1-monooxygenase (AlkB) from Acinetobacter johnsonii JNU01) and the substrate, polystyrene. A robust understanding of this mechanism could lead to potential development of a widespread solution that can mitigate polystyrene pollution. This paper will review the problems posed by polystyrene, benefits of biodegradation, current research into plausible enzymes, the specific characteristics of the JNU01 AlkB enzyme, and conclude with a computational docking experiment that demonstrates the interaction between the JNU01 AlkB enzyme and polystyrene molecule. This study concluded that the most likely mechanism by which polystyrene is degraded enzymatically is through backbone cleavage, in which the enzyme hydrolyzes the carbon-carbon backbone in order to depolymerize the molecule, and allowing for subsequent styrene monomer degradation.