Using biopolymer bodies for encapsulation of hydrophobic products in bacterium

Producing some small hydrophobic molecules in microbes is challenging. Often these molecules cannot cross membranes, and thus their production may be limited by lack of storage space in the producing organism. This study reports a new technology for in vivo storage of valuable hydrophobic products in/on biopolymer bodies in Escherichia coli. A biodegradable and biocompatible polyester - poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) - was selected as the intracellular storage vessel to encapsulate lycopene, which is a chromogenic model compound. The hydrophobic interaction between lycopene and PHB was verified by using in vitro binding test and sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Further in vivo characterization was performed by using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM). The images validated the in vivo co-localization between PHB granules and lycopene. The images also showed that lycopene aggregated in bacteria that did not produce PHB, which may challenge the commonly accepted hypothesis that most lycopene molecules are stored in cell membranes of recombinant host. We also confirmed that producing PHB did not negatively affect lycopene biosynthesis in the E. coli strains and collected data suggesting that PHB titer and lycopene titer were positively correlated when the cells were engineered to co-produce them. The biopolymers that encapsulated hydrophobic molecules could have many useful applications, especially in controlled release because the polymers are biodegradable, and the encapsulated products would be released during the polymer degradation.