Methanotrophic-heterotrophic communities were selectively enriched from sewage sludge to obtain a mixed culture with high levels of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) accumulation capacity from methane. Methane was used as the carbon source, N2 as sole nitrogen source, and oxygen and Cu content were varied. Copper proved essential for PHB synthesis. All cultures enriched with Cu could accumulate high...

The copolymerization of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is a promising trend in bioengineering to improve biomedical properties, e.g. biocompatibility, of this biodegradable polymer. We used strain Azotobacter chroococcum 7B, an effective producer of PHB, for biosynthesis of not only homopolymer and its main copolymer, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHB-HV), but also novel terpolym...

In Streptomyces coelicolor, we identified a para-hydroxybenzoate (PHB) hydroxylase, encoded by gene pobA (SCO3084), which is responsible for conversion of PHB into PCA (protocatechuic acid), a substrate of the β-ketoadipate pathway which yields intermediates of the Krebs cycle. We also found that the transcription of pobA is induced by PHB and is negatively regulated by the product of SCO3209, ...

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a bioplastic that can be produced in transgenic plants by the coexpression of three bacterial genes for its biosynthesis. PHB yields from plants have been constrained by the negative impacts on plant health that result from diversion of resources into PHB production; thus, we employed an ecdysone analogue-based system for induced gene expression. We characterized 49...

The production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) by Bacillus sp. is most often growth associated and is influenced by various physico-chemical parameters. Imbalanced nutrient conditions were often found to result in sporulation and low PHB production in Bacillus sp. In the present investigation, Bacillus mycoides DFC1 strain isolated from garden soil was studied for PHB production in glucose–peptone...

The morphology and miscibility of commercial poly(lactide) (PLA)/poly(b-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB, from 5 to 20 wt %) blends prepared by melt extrusion method, were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) observations. The results show that for all the studied blend contents, PLA/PHB blends are immiscible. The effects of PHB and ...

The carbon that rhizobia in root nodules receive from their host powers both N(2) fixation, which mainly benefits the host, and rhizobium reproduction. Rhizobia also store energy in the lipid poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), which may enhance rhizobium survival when they are carbon limited, either in nodules or in the soil between hosts. There can be a conflict of interest between rhizobia and leg...

Eight mutants of Alcaligenes eutrophus defective in the intracellular accumulation of poly-beta-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB) were isolated after transposon Tn5 mutagenesis with the suicide vector pSUP5011. EcoRI fragments which harbor Tn5-mob were isolated from pHC79 cosmid gene banks. One of them, PPT1, was used as a probe to detect the intact 12.5-kilobase-pair EcoRI fragment PP1 in a lambda L47...

The Cassava starch manufacturing wastewater (CSW) was used as a substrate to produce polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) by Cupriavidus sp. KKU38. The acidogenic fermentation process of CSW was first conducted to obtain volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which are more efficient in PHB production than raw CSW. The effect on substrate concentration and nutrients, i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, by ...

Prohibitin (PHB) is a ubiquitous protein with a number of different molecular functions. PHB is involved in tumorigenesis by exerting either a permissive or blocking action on tumor growth, depending on the cell context. In the present study, we investigated the effects of the histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis), trichostatin A (TSA) and sodium butyrate (NaB), on PHB expression in the thyro...