2023/06/19 by Santolin, Lara, Thiele, Isabel, Neubauer, Peter +1
#500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik::570 Biowissenschaften #Biologie #Biologie::570 Biowissenschaften #PHA #Ralstonia eutropha #biodegradable #bioplastic #poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate) #polyhydroxyalkanoate #scale-up #substrate-flexible
paper · doi:10.14279/depositonce-17995
The enhanced material properties exhibited by the microbially synthetized polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) copolymer poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate) [P(HB-co-HHx)] evidence that this naturally biodegrading biopolymer could replace various functionalities of established petrochemical plastics. In fact, the thermal processability, toughness and degradation rate of P(HB-co-HHx) can be tuned by modulating its HHx molar content enabling to manufacture polymers à-la-carte. We have developed a simple batch strategy to precisely control the HHx content of P(HB-co-HHx) to obtain tailor-made PHAs with defined properties. By adjusting the ratio of fructose to canola oil as substrates for the cultivation of recombinant Ralstonia eutropha Re2058/pCB113, the molar fraction of HHx in P(HB-co-HHx) could be adjusted within a range of 2–17 mol% without compromising polymer yields. The chosen strategy proved to be robust from the mL-scale in deep-well-plates to 1-L batch bioreactor cultivations.