| Title: | Microbial monomers custom-synthesized to build true bio-derived aromatic polymers |
| Author(s): | Fujita T; Nguyen HD; Ito T; Zhou S; Osada L; Tateyama S; Kaneko T; Takaya N; |
| Address: | "Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan" |
| Journal Title: | Appl Microbiol Biotechnol |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00253-013-5078-4 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1432-0614 (Electronic) 0175-7598 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Aromatic polymers include novel and extant functional materials although none has been produced from biotic building blocks derived from primary biomass glucose. Here we screened microbial aromatic metabolites, engineered bacterial metabolism and fermented the aromatic lactic acid derivative beta-phenyllactic acid (PhLA). We expressed the Wickerhamia fluorescens gene (pprA) encoding a phenylpyruvate reductase in Escherichia coli strains producing high levels of phenylalanine, and fermented optically pure (>99.9 %) D-PhLA. Replacing pprA with bacterial ldhA encoding lactate dehydrogenase generated L-PhLA, indicating that the produced enzymes converted phenylpyruvate, which is an intermediate of phenylalanine synthesis, to these chiral PhLAs. Glucose was converted under optimized fermentation conditions to yield 29 g/l D-PhLA, which was purified from fermentation broth. The product satisfied the laboratory-scale chemical synthesis of poly(D-PhLA) with M w 28,000 and allowed initial physiochemical characterization. Poly(D-PhLA) absorbed near ultraviolet light, and has the same potential as all other biomass-derived aromatic bioplastics of phenylated derivatives of poly(lactic acid). This approach to screening and fermenting aromatic monomers from glucose exploits a new era of bio-based aromatic polymer design and will contribute to petroleum conservation and carbon dioxide fixation" |
| Keywords: | Biomass Biopolymers/*biosynthesis Bioreactors/microbiology Escherichia coli/genetics/*metabolism Fermentation Genetic Engineering Lactates/metabolism Volatile Organic Compounds/*metabolism; |
| Notes: | "MedlineFujita, Tomoya Nguyen, Hieu Duc Ito, Takashi Zhou, Shengmin Osada, Lisa Tateyama, Seiji Kaneko, Tatsuo Takaya, Naoki eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Germany 2013/08/21 Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013 Oct; 97(20):8887-94. doi: 10.1007/s00253-013-5078-4. Epub 2013 Aug 15" |
