Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110 has five polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthases (PhaC) annotated in its genome: bll4360 (phaC1), bll6073 (phaC2), blr3732 (phaC3), blr2885 (phaC4), and bll4548 (phaC5). All these proteins possess the catalytic triad and conserved amino acid residues of polyester synthases and are distributed into four different PhaC classes. We obtained mutants in each of these p...

This review focuses on the factors that determine the molecular weight of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), an aliphatic polyester synthesized by bacteria for carbon and energy storage. PHA is a polymer with good thermoplastic, biodegradable, biocompatible and renewable properties. Therefore, it has attracted considerable attention as an environmentally friendly and biomedical material. Because the m...

Microbiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) in mutant Azotobacter vinelandii UWD, the kinetic properties of 3-ketothiolase, acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, and /3hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase were examined. The regulatiorn of the condensation of acetyl-CoA mediated by 3-ketothiolase was narmal, in that it was negatively regulated by free CoA, but...

This work describes the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as a side stream process on a municipal waste water treatment plant (WWTP) and a subsequent analysis of the production potential in Germany and the European Union (EU). Therefore, tests with different types of sludge from a WWTP were investigated regarding their volatile fatty acids (VFA) production-potential. Afterwards, primary...

Enzyme immobilization provides substantial advantages in terms of improving the efficiency enzymatic process as well enhancing reusability enzymes. Phasins (PhaPs) are naturally occurring polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-binding proteins, and thus can potentially be used a fusion partner for oriented enzymes onto PHA supports. However, presently available granular supports have low surface-area-to-vo...

This review focuses on nontemplate-dependent polymerases that use water-soluble substrates and convert them into water-insoluble polymers that form granules or inclusions within the cell. The initial part of the review summarizes briefly the current knowledge of polymer formation catalyzed by starch and glycogen synthases, polyphosphate kinase (a polymerase), cyanophycin synthetases, and rubber...

1 Ecobiomaterial Research Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia 2 Biology Department, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, P. O. Box: 36, PC 123, Al Khoud, Sultanate of Oman *Corresponding author: Mailing address: School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia; Tel: +60 4-6534367, Fax: +60 4-656512...

Although polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) accumulation and mobilization are one of the most general mechanisms for haloarchaea to adapt to the hypersaline environments with changeable carbon sources, the PHA mobilization pathways are still not clear for any haloarchaea. In this study, the functions of five putative (R)-specific enoyl-CoA hydratases (R-ECHs) in Haloferax mediterranei, named PhaJ1 to P...

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have been demonstrated to be a family of biopolymers with good biodegradability and biocompatibility. To mimic the real microenvironment of extracellular matrix (ECM) for cell growth, novel nanofiber matrices based on PHA polymers were prepared via a phase separation process. Three-dimensional interconnected fibrous networks were observed in these matrices with aver...

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production was achieved using tomato cannery waste coupled with a mixed microbial culture during wastewater treatment. The two-stage PHA production process comprised a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), operating under a periodic feast-famine regime, to accomplish simultaneously wastewater treatment and selection of PHA-accumulating microbes, followed by a batch reactor ...