Evaluation of various carbon substrates for the biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates bearing functional groups by Pseudomonas putida.

The ability of Pseudomonas putida to synthesize polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) from 36 different carboxylic acids containing various functional groups was examined. This bacterium did not utilize short carboxylic acids (C(4)-C(6)) containing bromine, methoxy, ethoxy, cyclohexyl, phenoxy, and olefin groups as the sole carbon substrate. No polymer was isolated from the cells grown with carboxylic acids bearing hydroxyl, amino, para-methoxyphenoxy, and para-ethoxyphenoxy groups regardless of the carbon substrate chain lengths used even when they were cofed with nonanoic acid. Of all the carbon substrates evaluated, only 6-para-methylphenoxyhexanoic acid, 8-para-methylphenoxyoctanoic acid, 8-meta-methylphenoxyoctanoic acid, 10-undecenoic acid, and 10-undecynoic acid supported both growth and the production of PHA containing the corresponding functional groups by P. putida. The present results indicate that the carbon availability of P. putida for growth and PHA production is significantly different from that of P. oleovorans.