ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Bioprocess Engineering
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Biodegradation and Bioconversion of PlasticsView all articles
Life on the rocks: unexpected enzyme activity of the extremophilic black fungus Knufia chersonesos
Provisionally accepted
Sophia Mihalyi1
Christian Zimmermann2
Felice Quartinello1
Donatella Tesei3
Astrid R Mach-Aigner2
Georg M Guebitz1
Doris Ribitsch1*- 1BOKU University, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Vienna, Austria
- 2Technische Universitat Wien Fakultat fur Technische Chemie, Vienna, Austria
- 3BOKU University, Institute of Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology, Vienna, Austria
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Knowledge about extremophile organisms and their survival strategies could be of great value for various industrial applications including biological plastics recycling. The black fungus Knufia chersonesos inhabits extreme environments such as rocks and therefore produces specific enzymes that function under harsh conditions. A cutinase (Kc_Cut) and a lipase (Kc_Lip) identified via proteomics-based screening in the secretome of K. chersonesos grown on poly (butylene-adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) as carbon sources were recombinantly expressed in Komagataella phaffii and Trichoderma reesei, respectively, for further characterization. The purified enzymes showed a specific activity of 83 ± 1 and 0.23± 0.02 U mg-1 on para-nitrophenylbutyrate (p-NPB) as substrate, respectively. Optimum conditions of Kc_Cut were evaluated through activity measurements on p-NPB and resulted in 50 °C, pH 8 and 100 mM potassium phosphate buffer. Incubation with PBAT powder for 72 h resulted in the release of 17 ± 1 µM of terephthalic acid (Ta) by Kc_Cut while the Kc_Lip liberated the trimer BTaB. This indicated a cooperative action of the two enzymes which was confirmed by hydrolysis of BTaB by Kc_Cut and provides valuable insight into the metabolic potential and adaptability of K. chersonesos.
Keywords: Cutinase, Lipase, PBAT hydrolysis, Trichoderma expression, Adipic acid, black fungi
Received: 07 Oct 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mihalyi, Zimmermann, Quartinello, Tesei, Mach-Aigner, Guebitz and Ribitsch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Doris Ribitsch
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