Microbial production of unusual biopolyesters

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Bacterial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are intracellular storage material, which can be used as a biobased plastic. The most common PHA is P(3-hydroxybutyrate), which has been found in a variety of bacteria and produced with good yield. However, the brittleness of the polymer has limited the practical use of the material. This study addressed this problem by using engineered polymer synthetic systems, which are capable synthesizing unusual PHAs. For examples, the isotactic P(2-hydroxybutyrate) was efficiently produced using engineered Escherichia coli. The microbial process had an advantage over the chemical polymerization in that the enzymatic polymerization is capable of synthesizing isotactic polymer from inexpensive racemic precursor. The polyester exhibited excellent transparency and flexibility, which differed from conventional PHAs. The glycolate-based polyester also produced using E. coli. This was the first case for the intracellular polymerization of glycolate.