Kwiatos Natalia, Steinbüchel Alexander
International Center for Research on Innovative Biobased Materials (ICRI-BioM)-International Research Agenda, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Oct 19;9:763804. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.763804. eCollection 2021.
A circular bioeconomy approach is essential to slowing down the fearsome ongoing climate change. Replacing polymers derived from fossil fuels with biodegradable biobased polymers is one crucial part of this strategy. Cyanophycin is a polymer consisting of amino acids produced by cyanobacteria with many potential applications. It consists mainly of aspartic acid and arginine, however, its composition may be changed at the production stage depending on the conditions of the polymerization reaction, as well as the characteristics of the enzyme cyanophycin synthetase, which is the key enzyme of catalysis. Cyanophycin synthetases from many sources were expressed heterologously in bacteria, yeast and plants aiming at high yields of the polymer or at introducing different amino acids into the structure. Furthermore, cyanophycin can be modified at the post-production level by chemical and enzymatic methods. In addition, cyanophycin can be combined with other compounds to yield hybrid materials. Although cyanophycin is an attractive polymer for industry, its usage as a sole material remains so far limited. Finding new variants of cyanophycin may bring this polymer closer to real-world applications. This short review summarizes all modifications of cyanophycin and its variants that have been reported within the literature until now, additionally addressing their potential applications.
循环生物经济方法对于减缓当前可怕的气候变化至关重要。用可生物降解的生物基聚合物取代源自化石燃料的聚合物是该战略的一个关键部分。藻青素是一种由蓝藻产生的由氨基酸组成的聚合物，具有许多潜在应用。它主要由天冬氨酸和精氨酸组成，然而，其组成在生产阶段可能会根据聚合反应条件以及作为催化关键酶的藻青素合成酶的特性而发生变化。来自许多来源的藻青素合成酶在细菌、酵母和植物中进行了异源表达，旨在实现聚合物的高产或在结构中引入不同的氨基酸。此外，藻青素可以在生产后通过化学和酶促方法进行修饰。此外，藻青素可以与其他化合物结合以产生杂化材料。尽管藻青素对工业来说是一种有吸引力的聚合物，但到目前为止，其作为单一材料的用途仍然有限。寻找藻青素的新变体可能会使这种聚合物更接近实际应用。这篇简短的综述总结了迄今为止文献中报道的藻青素及其变体的所有修饰，并额外讨论了它们的潜在应用。
