• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.110-116
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• 2022

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are emerging as alternatives to plastics by replacing fossil fuels with renewable raw substrates. Herein, we present the construction of engineered Escherichia coli strains to produce short-chain-length PHAs (scl-PHAs), including the monomers 4-hydroxyvalerate (4HV) and 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) produced from levulinic acid (LA). First, an E. coli strain expressing genes (lvaEDABC) from the LA metabolic pathway of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 was constructed to generate 4HV-CoA and 3HV-CoA. Second, both PhaAB enzymes from Cupriavidus necator H16 were expressed to supply 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB)-CoA from acetyl-CoA. Finally, PHA synthase (PhaC_Cv) from Chromobacterium violaceum was introduced for the subsequent polymerization of these three monomers. The resulting E. coli strains produced four PHAs (w/w% of dry cell weight): 9.1 wt% P(4HV), 1.7 wt% P(3HV-co-4HV), 24.2 wt% P(3HB-co-4HV), and 35.6 wt% P(3HB-co-3HV-co-4HV).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2014

One of the major challenges in metabolic engineering for enhanced synthesis of value-added chemicals is to design and develop new strains that can be translated into well-controlled fermentation processes using bioreactors. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of various fed-batch strategies in the performance of metabolically engineered Pseudomonas putida strains, ${\Delta}gcd$ and ${\Delta}gcd-pgl$, for improving production of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) using glucose as the only carbon source. First we developed a fed-batch process that comprised an initial phase of biomass accumulation based on an exponential feeding carbon-limited strategy. For the mcl-PHA accumulation stage, three induction techniques were tested under nitrogen limitation. The substrate-pulse feeding was more efficient than the constant-feeding approach to promote the accumulation of the desirable product. Nonetheless, the most efficient approach for maximum PHA synthesis was the application of a dissolved-oxygen-stat feeding strategy (DO-stat), where P. putida ${\Delta}gcd$ mutant strain showed a final PHA content and specific PHA productivity of 67% and $0.83g{\cdot}l^{-1}{\cdot}h^{-1}$, respectively. To our knowledge, this mcl-PHA titer is the highest value that has been ever reported using glucose as the sole carbon and energy source. Our results also highlighted the effect of different fed-batch strategies upon the extent of realization of the intended metabolic modification of the mutant strains.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2000

Biodegradation of vanous medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (MCL-PHAs) by an extracellular depolymerase system from Pseudomonas sp. RY-1 was investigated under laboratoly conditions. The degradation rate of the polymers was determined by quantitative clem zone technique, enzyme (turbidity) assay, and respirometry assay. Although the enzyme system secreted by Pscudomor~as sp. RY-1 was capable of degrading all MCL-PHAs tested. its secretion was influenced by the availability of secondary carbon sources. The rate of enzymatic degradation of MCL-PHAs was dependent upou the monomeric composition of the polyesters and reduced as the chain lengths of the monomer m t s in the polyesters increased. MCL-PHAs containing C-even monomer units showed faster degradation rate than MCL-PHAs containing C-odd monomer units. Respiration rates of MCL-PHAs with C-even monomer uuts were also much faster than those of MCL-PHAs with C-odd monomer units. The degmdation rate of MCL-PHAs bearing unsaturated substituents was faster than that of mcl-PHAs without functional substituents, which is suggesting the correlation between the degradation rate and the crystallinity of MCL-PHAs.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.371-377
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• 2007

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of microbial polyesters that can be produced by fermentation from renewable resources. PHAs can be used as completely biodegradable plastics or elastomers. In this paper, novel applications of PHAs in biosensor are described. A general platform technology was developed by using the substrate binding domain (SBD) of PHA depolymerase as a fusion partner to immobilize proteins of interest on PHA surface. It could be shown that the proteins fused to the SBD of PHA depolymerase could be specifically immobilized onto PHA film, PHA microbead, and microcontact printed PHA surface. We review the results obtained for monitoring the specific interaction between the SBO and PHA by using enhanced green fluorescent protein, red fluorescent protein, single chain antibody against hepatitis B virus preS2 surface protein and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus surface antigen as model proteins. Thus, this system can be efficiently used for studying protein-protein and possibly protein-biomolecule interactions for various biotechnological applications.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.51-53
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• 1996

Fed-batch culture of Pseudomonas oleovorans was carried out for the production of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (MCL-PHAs) using octanoate as a carbon source. Octanoate and the salt solution containing ammounium sulfate and magnesium sulfate were intermittently fed in the course of fermentation. Cell mass and PHA concentrations of 42.8 and 16.8g/L, respectively, could be obtained in 40 h. The PHA content and the PHA productivity were 39.2% and 0.42 g PHA/L-h, respectively. The yields of cell mass and PHA were 0.71 g dry cell mass/g octanoate and 0.28g PHA/g octanoate, respectively. Therefore, octanoate can be used for the production of MCL-PHAs to a high concentration with high productivity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.990-994
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• 2017

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable plastics produced by bacteria, but their use in diverse applications is prohibited by high production costs. To reduce these costs, the conversion by Pseudomonas strains of PHAs from crude sludge palm oil (SPO) as an inexpensive renewable raw material was tested. Pseudomonas putida S12 was found to produce the highest yield (~41%) of elastomeric medium-chain-length (MCL)-PHAs from SPO. The MCL-PHA characteristics were analyzed by gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry, gel permeation chromatography, and differential scanning calorimetry. These findings may contribute to more widespread use of PHAs by reducing PHA production costs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.206-215
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• 2005

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are homo or hetero polyesters of (R)-hydroxyalkanoates accumulated in various microorganisms under growth-limiting condition in the presence of excess carbon source. They have been suggested as biodegradable substitutes for chemically synthesized polymers. Recombinant Escherichia coli is one of the promising host strains for the economical production of PHAs, and has been extensively investigated for the process development. The heterologous PHA biosynthetic pathways have been established through the metabolic engineering and inherent metabolic pathways of E. coli have been redirected to supply PHA precursors. Fermentation strategies for cultivating these recombinant E. coli strains have also been developed for the efficient production of PHAs. Nowadays, short-chain-length (SCL) PHAs are being re-invited due to its improved mechanical properties and possible applications in the biomedical area. In this article, recent advances in the development of metabolically engineered E. coli strains for the enhanced production of SCL-PHAs are reviewed. Also, medical applications of SCL-PHAs are discussed.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.107-110
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• 2003

Biodegradable polymers, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), and medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates (MCL-PHA) containing rose bengal (model drug) were coated onto the surface of stainless steel (stent materials) and their in vitro release characteristics were investigated. Drug release increased with; decreasing PLGA concentration, increasing rose bengal concentration, and Increasing dip-coating duration. The order of drug release from the polymer coating was: PHB > PLGA > MCL-PHA. These results suggest that drug release can be controlled by: changing the concentration and type of polymer, the drug concentration, and the dip-coating duration.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2005

The characteristics of cell growth and medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (MCL-PHA) biosynthesis of Pseudomonas chlororaphis HS21 were investigated using plant oils as the carbon substrate. The organism was efficiently capable of utilizing plant oils, such as palm oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil, as the sole carbon source for growth and MCL-PHA production. When palm oil (5 g/L) was used as the carbon source, the cell growth and MCL-PHA accumulation of this organism occurred simultaneously, and a high dry cell weight (2.4 g/L) and MCL-PHA ($40.2\;mol{\%}$ of dry cell weight) was achieved after 30 hr of batch-fermentation. The repeating unit in the MCL-PHA produced from palm oil composed of 3-hydroxyhexanoate ($7.0\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxyoctanoate ($45.3\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxydecanoate ($39.0\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxydodecanoate ($6.8\;mol{\%}$), and 3-hydroxytetradecanoate ($1.9\;mol{\%}$), as determined by GC/MS. Even though glucose was a carbon substrate that support cell growth but not PHA production, the conversion rate of palm oil to PHA was significantly increased when glucose was fed as a cosubstrate, suggesting that bioconversion of some functionalized carbon substrates to related polymers in P chlororaphis HS21 could be enhanced by the co-feed of good carbon substrates for cell growth. In addition, the change of compositions of repeating units in MCL-PHAs synthesized from the plant oils was markedly affected by the supplementation of acrylic acid, an inhibitor of fatty acid ${\beta}-oxidation$. The addition of acrylic acid resulted in the increase of longer chain-length repeating units, such as 3-hydroxydodecanoate and 3-hydroxytetradecanoate, in the MCL-PHAs produced. Particularly, MCI-PHAs containing high amounts of unsaturated repeating units could be produced when sunflower oil and corn oil were used as the carbon substrate. These results suggested that the alteration of PHA synthesis pathway by acrylic acid addition can offer the opportunity to design new functional MCL-PHAs and other unusual polyesters that have unique physico-chemical properties.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.200-206
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• 2012

A bacterial strain capable of synthesizing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with an unusual pattern of monomer units was isolated from activated sludge using the enrichment culture technique. The organism, identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa P-5, produced polyesters consisting of 3-hydroxyvalerate and medium-chain-length (MCL) 3-hydroxyalkanoate monomer units when $C_{-odd}$ alkanoic acids such as nonanoic acid and heptanoic acid were fed as the sole carbon source. Solvent fractionation experiments using chloroform and hexane revealed that the 3-hydroxyalkanoate monomer units in these polyesters were copolymerized. The molar concentration of 3-hydroxyvalerate in the polyesters produced were significantly elevated up to 26 mol% by adding 1.0 g/L valeric acid as the cosubstrate. These copolyesters were sticky with low degrees of crystallinity. The PHA synthase genes were cloned, and the deduced amino acid sequences were determined. P. aeruginosa P-5 possessed genes encoding MCL-PHA synthases (PhaC1 and PhaC2) but lacked the short-chain-length PHA synthase gene, suggesting that the MCL-PHA synthases from P. aeruginosa P-5 are uniquely active for polymerizing (R)-3-hydroxyvaleryl-CoA as well as MCL (R)-3-hydroxyacyl-CoAs.