An Antibiotic Degrading Engineered Living Material Platform to Combat Environmental Antibiotic Resistance

Presence of antibiotics in natural water bodies is a growing problem regarding the occurrence of antibiotic resistance among various species. This is mainly caused due to excessive use of medical and veterinary antibiotics as well as the lack of effective treatment processes for eliminating residual antibiotic from wastewaters. In this study, we introduce a genetically engineered biomaterial as a solution for effective degradation of one of the dominantly found antibiotics in natural water bodies. Our biomaterial harnesses laccase type enzymes which are known to attack specific type of antibiotics, i.e. fluoroquinolone type synthetic antibiotics, and as a result degradation occurs. The engineered biomaterial is built using Escherichia coli biofilm protein CsgA as a scaffold, which is fused separately to two different laccase enzymes with the SpyTag - SpyCatcher peptide-protein duo. The final material is implemented as a part of a living material system. Our proposed system can be integrated as living antibiotic degrading materials to help the combat with antibiotic resistance.