title: Comment on "A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate)".
abstract: Yoshida et al (Report, 11 March 2016, p. 1196) reported that the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 can degrade and assimilate poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). However, the authors exaggerated degradation efficiency using a low-crystallinity PET and presented no straightforward experiments to verify depolymerization and assimilation of PET. Thus, the authors' conclusions are rather misleading.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P.R. China. yangjun@buaa.edu.cn jianglei@iccas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P.R. China. yangjun@buaa.edu.cn jianglei@iccas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D020562:Betaproteobacteria / Q000201:enzymology*; D010969:Plastics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates