Metabolic engineering of Ralstonia eutropha for biosynthesis of natural and unnatural polyhydroxyalkanoates from renewable resources

Si Jae PARK1, Young Hoon OH2, Sang Yup LEE3

1Department of Environmental Engineering and Energy, Myongji University, Yongin-si, Gyeonggido 449-728, Republic of Korea, parksjdr@gmail.com

2Research Center for Biobased Chemistry, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon 305-600, Republic of Korea, yhoh@krict.re.kr

3Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of

Korea, leesy@kaist.ac.kr
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have been considered as promising environmentally friendly alternatives of petroleum-based polymers due to their material properties that are similar to those of chemically synthesized plastics. Since the cost effective production of PHAs is one of the most important factors for the commercialization of PHAs, much effort has been devoted to the development of microorganisms able to efficiently utilize cheap carbon sources such as sucrose and glycerol. For example, sucrose is one of the most abundant and least expensive carbon sources extracted from sugarcane and sugarbeet. Thus, development of microorganisms capable of utilizing cheap carbon sources can provide cost-competitiveness of fermentation-driven products.
Here, we report recombinant Ralstonia eutropha strains able to produce natural and unnatural PHAs from various renewable resources derived from biomass as a carbon source and detailed results will be presented in this presentation.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2013R1A1A2058379) and by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes (Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries) from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning through the NRF (NRF-2012- C1AAA001-2012M1A2A2026556).