Synthesis and characterization of a 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxy-9-octadecenoate copolymer from engineered Halomonas

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of biodegradable polyesters accumulated by various microorganisms. The halophilic microorganism Halomonas bluephagenesis has been developed as a production platform strain for various PHAs, chemicals and proteins under open nonsterile and continuous conditions. For the first time, H. bluephagenesis has been engineered to synthesize a copolymer of a short chain length PHA (SCL PHA) and a long chain length PHA (LCL PHA) called, SCL-co-LCL PHA. This study engineered H. bluephagenesis for synthesizing SCL-co-LCL PHA via β-oxidation inhibition and expression of heterologous PHA synthase (PhaC). Sodium oleate was utilized as a structurally related carbon source due to its low cost, long carbon chain length, unsaturated bonds and sustainability. The engineered H. bluephagenesis successfully synthesized copolymers of 3-hydroxybutanoic acid (3HB) and 3-hydroxy-9-octadecenoic acid (3H9Od) on sodium oleate. It could be grown to 8 g L−1 cell dry weight (CDW) containing 51 wt% P(3HB-co-12 mol% 3H9Od) in shake flasks, and 28 g L−1 cell dry weight (CDW) containing 53 wt% P(3HB-co-6 mol% 3H9Od) in 7 L fermenters. Subsequently, the thermal properties of this new PHA were characterized. Finally, chemical click reactions were applied to modify P3HB3H9Od into an organogel, and rare-earth modified fluorescent PHA was successfully prepared.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis and characterization of a 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxy-9-octadecenoate copolymer from engineered Halomonas

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 May 2025
Accepted
24 Jul 2025
First published
25 Jul 2025

Green Chem., 2025, Advance Article

Synthesis and characterization of a 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxy-9-octadecenoate copolymer from engineered Halomonas

X. Chen, J. Chen, X. Yan, Q. Wu, F. Wu and G. Chen, Green Chem., 2025, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5GC02422F

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