Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is a class of polyester plastic composed of terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG). The accumulation of large amount of PET waste has resulted in severe environmental and health problems. Microbial polyester hydrolases with the ability to degrade PET provide an economy- and environment-friendly approach for the treatment of PET waste. In recent years, many PET hydrolases have been discovered and characterized from various microorganisms and engineered for better performance under practical application conditions. Here, recent progress in the discovery, characterization, and enzymatic mechanism elucidation of PET hydrolases is firstly reviewed. Then, structure-guided protein engineering of PET hydrolases with increased enzymatic activities, expanded substrate specificity, as well as improved protein stability is summarized. In addition, strategies for efficient expression of recombinant PET hydrolases, including secretory expression and cell-surface display, are briefly introduced. This review is concluded with future perspectives in biodegradation and subsequent biotransformation of PET wastes to produce value-added compounds.

聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）是一类由对苯二甲酸（TPA）和乙二醇（EG）组成的聚酯塑料。大量 PET 废物的积累导致了严重的环境和健康问题。具有降解 PET 能力的微生物聚酯水解酶为处理 PET 废物提供了一种经济环保的方法。近年来，人们从各种微生物中发现并表征了许多 PET 水解酶，并对其进行了改造，以在实际应用条件下获得更好的性能。在这里，首先回顾了 PET 水解酶的发现、表征和酶促机制阐明的最新进展。然后，PET 水解酶的结构引导蛋白质工程具有更高的酶活性、扩展的底物特异性、以及改进的蛋白质稳定性进行了总结。此外，还简要介绍了重组 PET 水解酶的有效表达策略，包括分泌表达和细胞表面展示。本综述总结了生物降解和随后生物转化 PET 废物以生产增值化合物的未来前景。