A shortcut to carbon-neutral bioplastic production: Recent advances in microbial production of polyhydroxyalkanoates from C1 resources

Abstract

Since the 20th century, plastics that are widely being used in general life and industries are causing enormous plastic waste problems since improperly discarded plastics barely degrade and decompose. Thus, the demand for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), biodegradable polymers with material properties similar to conventional petroleum-based plastics, has been increased so far. The microbial production of PHAs is an environment friendly solution for the current plastic crisis, however, the carbon sources for the microbial PHA production is a crucial factor to be considered in terms of carbon-neutrality. One-carbon (C1) resources, such as methane, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, are greenhouse gases and are abundantly found in nature and industry. C1 resources as the carbon sources for PHA production have a completely closed carbon loop with much advances; i) fast carbon circulation with direct bioconversion process and ii) simple fermentation procedure without sterilization as non-preferable nutrients. This review discusses the biosynthesis of PHAs based on C1 resource utilization by wild-type and metabolically engineered microbial host strains via biorefinery processes.