• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.2018-2026
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• 2007

A bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa BM114, capable of accumulating a blend of medium-chain-length (MCL)- and short-chain-length (SCL)-polyhydroxyalkanoic acid (PHA), was isolated. Salicylic acid (SA), without being metabolized, was found to specifically inhibit only the accumulation of MCL-PHA without affecting cell growth. An addition of 20 mM SA selectively inhibited the accumulation of MCL-PHA in decanoate-grown cells by 83% of the control content in one-step cultivation, where overall PHA accumulation was inhibited by only ${\sim}11%$. Typically, the molar monomer-unit ratio of the PHA for 25 mM decanoate-grown cells changed from 46:4:25:25 (=[3-hydroxybutyrate]:[3-hydroxycaproate]: [3-hydroxyoctanoate]:[3-hydroxydecanoate]) at 0 mM SA (dry cell wt, 1.97 g/l; PHA content, 48.6 wt%) to 91:1:4:4 at 20 mM SA (dry cell wt, 1.85 g/l; PHA content, 43.2 wt%). Thus, the stimulation of SCL-PHA accumulation was observed. Growth of P. aeruginosa BM114 on undecanoic acid also produced a PHA blend composed of 47.4% P(3HB-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) and 52.6% P(3-hydroxyheptanoate-co-3-hydroxynonanoate-co-3-hydroxyundecanoate). Similar to the case of even-carboxylic acids, SA inhibited the accumulation of only MCL-PHA, but stimulated the accumulation of SCL-PHA. For all medium-chain fatty acids tested, SA induced a stimulation of SCL-PHA accumulation in the BM114 strain. SA could thus be used to suppress only the formation of MCL-PHA in Pseudomonas spp. accumulating a blend of SCL-PHA and MCL-PHA.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2005

The characteristics of cell growth and medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (MCL-PHA) biosynthesis of Pseudomonas chlororaphis HS21 were investigated using plant oils as the carbon substrate. The organism was efficiently capable of utilizing plant oils, such as palm oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil, as the sole carbon source for growth and MCL-PHA production. When palm oil (5 g/L) was used as the carbon source, the cell growth and MCL-PHA accumulation of this organism occurred simultaneously, and a high dry cell weight (2.4 g/L) and MCL-PHA ($40.2\;mol{\%}$ of dry cell weight) was achieved after 30 hr of batch-fermentation. The repeating unit in the MCL-PHA produced from palm oil composed of 3-hydroxyhexanoate ($7.0\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxyoctanoate ($45.3\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxydecanoate ($39.0\;mol{\%}$), 3-hydroxydodecanoate ($6.8\;mol{\%}$), and 3-hydroxytetradecanoate ($1.9\;mol{\%}$), as determined by GC/MS. Even though glucose was a carbon substrate that support cell growth but not PHA production, the conversion rate of palm oil to PHA was significantly increased when glucose was fed as a cosubstrate, suggesting that bioconversion of some functionalized carbon substrates to related polymers in P chlororaphis HS21 could be enhanced by the co-feed of good carbon substrates for cell growth. In addition, the change of compositions of repeating units in MCL-PHAs synthesized from the plant oils was markedly affected by the supplementation of acrylic acid, an inhibitor of fatty acid ${\beta}-oxidation$. The addition of acrylic acid resulted in the increase of longer chain-length repeating units, such as 3-hydroxydodecanoate and 3-hydroxytetradecanoate, in the MCL-PHAs produced. Particularly, MCI-PHAs containing high amounts of unsaturated repeating units could be produced when sunflower oil and corn oil were used as the carbon substrate. These results suggested that the alteration of PHA synthesis pathway by acrylic acid addition can offer the opportunity to design new functional MCL-PHAs and other unusual polyesters that have unique physico-chemical properties.