Application of Synthetic Biology for the Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates

Rapid development of synthetic biology, including chassis design, BioBrick assembling, metabolic network re-construction, large genomic DNA cloning, and multiple DNA fragment assembly, enhances the competitiveness of industrial biotechnology. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) constitute a family of biodegradable and biocompatible plastics that can be synthesized in various bacterial cells. However, its high production cost prevents large-scale application. Synthetic biology allows the developments of various methods to change the growth morphology, growth conditions, and growth patterns of microbial producers, which, in turn, results in a reduction in the cost of PHA production. In addition, genome editing, including beta-oxidation manipulations, leads to the generation of microbial hosts that are able to produce various functional PHA with high value-added applications. A new era of low cost, high value production of PHA will promote the commercialization of PHA.