Abstract

Poly(hydroxybutyrate) is a biocompatible, biodegradable polyester synthesized naturally in a variety of microbial species. A greener alternative to petroleum-based plastics and sought after for biomedical applications, poly(hydroxybutyrate) has failed to break through as a leading material in the plastic industry due to its high cost of production. Specifically, the extraction of this material from within bacterial cells requires lysis of cells, which takes time, uses harsh chemicals, and starts the process again with growing new living cells. Recently, surface display of enzymes on bacterial membranes has become an emerging technique for extracellular biocatalysis. In this work, a fusion protein lpp-ompA-phaC was expressed in Escherichia coli to display the enzyme poly(hydroxyalkanoate) synthase on the cell surface. The resulting poly(hydroxybutyrate) product was chemically characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy. Finally, the extracellular synthesis of the bioplastic granules was demonstrated qualitatively via microscopy and quantitatively by flow cytometry. The results of this work are the first demonstration of extracellular synthesis of poly(hydroxybutyrate), showing promise for continuous and scalable synthesis of materials using surface display.

Department(s)

Chemistry

Publication Status

Open Access

Comments

Office of Naval Research, Grant N00014-21-1-4008

Keywords and Phrases

biopolymer synthesis; flow cytometry; FT-IR; microscopy; NMR; poly(hydroxybutyrate); surface display

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2694-2461

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2023 American Chemical Society, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2023

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Chemistry Commons

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