PlasticDB

PlasticDB catalogs microorganisms, proteins, and associated metadata related to plastic biodegradation to support identification and analysis of plastic-degrading enzymes and organisms.

Key Features:

• Database Content: PlasticDB contains reported plastic-degrading microorganisms and proteins with metadata including techniques used to assess biodegradation, environmental source of isolates, and presumed thermophilic characteristics.
• Protein Categorization: Proteins are categorized by the specific type of plastic they degrade to facilitate identification of relevant enzymes.
• In Silico Protein Structure Prediction: Protein structures are predicted using computational predictive modeling and provided for download for structural analysis.
• Analytical Tools: Analytical tools accept gene sequences, genomes, metagenomes, transcriptomes, metatranscriptomes, and taxa tables to identify putative plastic-degrading species and potential biodegradation pathways.

Scientific Applications:

• Microbial ecology: Supports studies of microbial community members involved in plastic degradation.
• Environmental microbiology: Enables characterization of environmental isolates and sources associated with plastic biodegradation.
• Bioinformatics: Supports sequence- and structure-based analyses and the annotation of genomes, metagenomes, transcriptomes, and metatranscriptomes for plastic-degradation signals.
• Biodegradation pathway discovery: Enables identification and characterization of candidate biodegradation pathways and enzymes.

Methodology:

Data were compiled from publications on putative plastic-degrading microbes and proteins, integrated with associated metadata, and predictive modeling techniques were used to generate in silico protein structures.