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Plastics from bacteria and for bacteria: Poly(β-hydroxyalkanoates) as natural, biocompatible, and biodegradable polyesters

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Microbial Bioproducts

Part of the book series: Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology ((ABE,volume 41))

Abstract

A wide variety of different types of microorganisms are known to produce intracellular energy and carbon storage products which have been generally described as being poly(β-hydroxybutyrate), PHB, but which are, more often than not, copolymers containing different alkyl groups at the β-position. Hence, PHB belongs to the family of poly(β-hydroxyalkanoates), PHA, all of which are usually formed as intracellular inclusions under unbalanced growth conditions. Recently, it became of industrial interest to evaluate PHA polyesters as natural, biodegradable, and biocompatible plastics for a wide range of possible applications such as surgical sutures or packaging containers. For industrial applications, the controlled incorporation of repeating units with different chain lengths into a series of copolymers is desirable in order to produce polyesters with a range of material properties because physical and chemical characteristics depend strongly on the polymer composition. Such “tailormade” copolymers can be produced under controlled growth conditions, in that if a defined mixture of substrates for a certain type of microorganisms is supplied, a well defined and reproducible copolymer is formed.

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Abbreviations

PHA:

Poly(β-hydroxyalkanoates)

PHB:

Poly(β-hydroxybutyrate)

PHB-co-HV:

Poly(β-hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate)

PHH-co-HV:

Poly(β-hydroxyheptanoate-co-hydroxyvalerate)

PHN-co-HH:

Poly(β-hydroxynonanoate-co-hydroxyheptanoate)

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  1. Helmut Brandl & Richard A. Gross

    Present address: Department of Chemistry, University of Lowell, 1 University Ave., 01854, Lowell, MA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, MA, USA

    Helmut Brandl & R. Clinton Fuller

  2. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, MA, USA

    Richard A. Gross & Robert W. Lenz

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Brandl, H., Gross, R.A., Lenz, R.W., Fuller, R.C. (1990). Plastics from bacteria and for bacteria: Poly(β-hydroxyalkanoates) as natural, biocompatible, and biodegradable polyesters. In: Microbial Bioproducts. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, vol 41. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0010232

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0010232

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