Conventional petroleum-derived plastics are recalcitrant to biodegradation and can be problematic as they accumulate in the environment. In contrast, it may be possible to add novel, biodegradable bioplastics to anaerobic digesters at municipal water resource recovery facilities along with primary sludge to produce more biomethane. In this study, thermal and chemical bioplastic pretreatments we...

The bacterium Ralstonia eutropha H16 synthesizes polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) through reactions catalyzed by a β-ketothiolase (PhaA), an acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (PhaB), and a polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase (PhaC). An operon of three genes encoding these enzymatic steps was discovered in R. eutropha and has been well studied. Sequencing and analysis of the R. eu...

We previously showed that in Azotobacter vinelandii, accumulation of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) occurs mainly during the stationary phase, and that a mutation in phbR, encoding a transcriptional regulator of the AraC family, reduces PHB accumulation. In this study, we characterized the roles of PhbR and RpoS, a central regulator during stationary phase in bacteria, in the regulation of expressio...

BACKGROUND Slow-degrading, fossil fuel-derived plastics can have deleterious effects on the environment, especially marine ecosystems. The production of bio-based, biodegradable plastics from or in plants can assist in supplanting those manufactured using fossil fuels. Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is one such biodegradable polyester that has been evaluated as a possible candidate for relinquishing...

Cupriavidus necator H16 (formerly known as Hydrogenomonas eutropha) was famous as a potential single cell protein (SCP) in the 1970s. The drawback however was the undesirably efficient accumulation of non-nutritive polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) storage compound in the cytoplasm of this bacterium. Eventually, competition from soy-based protein resulted in SCP not receiving much attention. Neverthele...

The bottleneck of hemicellulose as a bio-based material is its processability and property drawbacks (softening hydrophilicity). Thus, mixing other biopolymers can be an alternative. This article proposes blending (10−50 wt%) with polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) poly (lactic acid) (PLA), using acetic acid chloroform casting solvents to improve thermal properties. materials were thermally (TGA - therm...

Tissue engineering is based on the association of cultured cells with structural matrices and the incorporation of signaling molecules for inducing tissue regeneration. Despite its enormous potential, tissue engineering faces a major challenge concerning the maintenance of cell viability after the implantation of the constructs. The lack of a functional vasculature within the implant compromise...

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...

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are good alternatives on account of biocompatible and biodegradable properties to produce materials as scaffolds for engineered tissues. Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) which is a member of polyhydroxyalkanoate family have been widely used as a biomaterial for in vitro and in vivo studies due to its unique properties such as improved flexibility and processability. In this...