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Synthetic Biology of Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)

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Book cover Synthetic Biology – Metabolic Engineering

Part of the book series: Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology ((ABE,volume 162))

Abstract

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are a family of biodegradable and biocompatible polyesters which have been extensively studied using synthetic biology and metabolic engineering methods for improving production and for widening its diversity. Synthetic biology has allowed PHA to become composition controllable random copolymers, homopolymers, and block copolymers. Recent developments showed that it is possible to establish a microbial platform for producing not only random copolymers with controllable monomers and their ratios but also structurally defined homopolymers and block copolymers. This was achieved by engineering the genome of Pseudomonas putida or Pseudomonas entomophiles to weaken the β-oxidation and in situ fatty acid synthesis pathways, so that a fatty acid fed to the bacteria maintains its original chain length and structures when incorporated into the PHA chains. The engineered bacterium allows functional groups in a fatty acid to be introduced into PHA, forming functional PHA, which, upon grafting, generates endless PHA variety. Recombinant Escherichia coli also succeeded in producing efficiently poly(3-hydroxypropionate) or P3HP, the strongest member of PHA. Synthesis pathways of P3HP and its copolymer P3HB3HP of 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxypropionate were assembled respectively to allow their synthesis from glucose. CRISPRi was also successfully used to manipulate simultaneously multiple genes and control metabolic flux in E. coli to obtain a series of copolymer P3HB4HB of 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and 4-hydroxybutyrate (4HB). The bacterial shapes were successfully engineered for enhanced PHA accumulation.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by 973 Basic Research Fund (Grant No. 2012CB725201), National High Tech 863 Grants (Grant No. 2012AA023102), and a Grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31270146).

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    De-Chuan Meng & Guo-Qiang Chen

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  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA

    Huimin Zhao

  2. Institut für Bioprozess- und Biosystemtechnik, Technische Universitðt Hamburg-Harburg, Hamburg, Germany

    An-Ping Zeng

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Meng, DC., Chen, GQ. (2017). Synthetic Biology of Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). In: Zhao, H., Zeng, AP. (eds) Synthetic Biology – Metabolic Engineering. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, vol 162. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/10_2017_3

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