Polymers from plants to develop biodegradable plastics.

Katrin Neumann et al. have recently shown that transgenic tobacco and potato plants can accumulate high levels of cyanophycin, a possible source for poly-aspartate. This work opens the way to the future production of biodegradable plastics using a plant-based production system. Several problems need to be overcome first, such as growth retardation as a result of cyanophycin accumulating in the cytosol, and a co-production system needs to be developed for economical reasons.