AUTHOR=Santolin Lara , Thiele Isabel , Neubauer Peter , Riedel Sebastian L. 

TITLE=Tailoring the HHx monomer content of P(HB-co-HHx) by flexible substrate compositions: scale-up from deep-well-plates to laboratory bioreactor cultivations

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2023.1081072

DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2023.1081072

ISSN=2296-4185

ABSTRACT=The enhanced material properties of the microbially synthetized polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) copolymer poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate) [P(HB-co-HHx)] show that this naturally biodegradable 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 the molar fraction of HHx in the copolymer, allowing the production of  à-la-carte polymers. 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.