Improved productivity of poly (4-hydroxybutyrate) (P4HB) in recombinant Escherichia coli using glycerol as the growth substrate with fed-batch culture.

Background: The most successful polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) in medical applications is poly(4-hydroxybutyrate) (P4HB), which is due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility and mechanical properties. One of the major obstacles for wider applications of P4HB is the cost of production and purification. It is highly desired to obtain P4HB in large scale at a competitive cost.

Results: In this work, we studied the possibility to increase P4HB productivity by using high cell density culture. To do so, we investigated for the first time some of the most relevant factors influencing P4HB biosynthesis in recombinant Escherichia coli. We observed that P4HB biosynthesis correlated more with limitations of amino acids and less with nitrogen depletion, contrary to the synthesis of many other types of PHAs. Furthermore, it was found that using glycerol as the primary carbon source, addition of acetic acid at the beginning of a batch culture stimulated P4HB accumulation in E. coli. Fed-batch high cell density cultures were performed to reach high P4HB productivity using glycerol as the sole carbon source for cell growth and 4HB as the precursor for P4HB synthesis. A P4HB yield of 15 g L-1 was obtained using an exponential feeding mode, leading to a productivity of 0.207 g L-1 h-1, which is the highest productivity for P4HB reported so far.

Conclusions: We demonstrated that the NZ-amines (amino acids source) in excess abolished P4HB accumulation, suggesting that limitation in certain amino acid pools promotes P4HB synthesis. Furthermore, the enhanced P4HB yield could be achieved by both the effective growth of E. coli JM109 (pKSSE5.3) on glycerol and the stimulated P4HB synthesis via exogenous addition of acetic acid. We have developed fermentation strategies for P4HB production by using glycerol, leading to a productivity of 0.207 g L-1 h-1 P4HB. This high P4HB productivity will decrease the total production cost, allowing further development of P4HB applications.