The use of enzymes, such as peroxidases, is a promising new approach for the degradation of organic pollutants during wastewater treatment applications. We, and others, have previously shown that plant peroxidases (such as soybean peroxidase) can efficiently degrade a range of organic pollutants that are increasingly being detected in water bodies. However, further research and application of this potentially powerful approach has been hindered by the cost of these enzymes. We plan to address this challenge by using recombinant DNA technology to clone and express large amounts of active peroxidases in bacteria. We specifically plan to take advantage of incorporating various “solubilizing fusion proteins” and/or affinity tags in the N-terminal of recombinant peroxidases to get high yields of active recombinant peroxidases. Additionally, we plan to carry out protein engineering and evolution to create “super-peroxidases” that will be more stable and active than wild-type enzymes. The second half of the project will focus on applying these novel recombinantly expressed peroxidases for the actual degradation and detoxification of a few chosen emerging pollutants (pesticides, drugs, etc.) using previously developed and established analytical (LCMSMS) and phytotoxicity assays. In addition to high-impact publications on recombinant plant peroxidase expression in bacteria, we hope to employ an MSc student in the project, and we may file patent applications if we are successful in creating industrially attractive novel peroxidases. Another attractive aspect of the project is that it is completely aligned with Khalifa University’s research priorities in the area of “Water and Environment,” specifically wastewater treatment.
