A commercial use of microbial produced products, like polyhydroxyalkanotes (PHAs), in the sense of
an environmental precaution appears meaningful and necessary. In order to more economically produce microbial
products, this investigation was focused on suitable producers, like the yeast
Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Since it is
not capable of the PHA synthesis, easily cultured and they must be modified genetically. Therefore, the genes of the
phb biosynthesis pathway of
Ralstonia eutropha
[beta-ketothiolase (
phbA
Re); acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (
phbB
Re); as
well as
phb synthase (
phbC
Re), located onto the plasmid pBHR68 were cloned into the cohesive ended pYIplac128
integrated vector that transformed into the chromosome of the yeast
Schizosaccharomyces pombe strain Q01. Under the
optimized cultivation conditions, the transgenic yeast
S. pombe strain Q01/
phb was able to produce
phb and
accumulated up to 9.018 %
phb. The presence of heterologous DNA in the transgenic yeast was examined by means of
Western blot analysis. In addition, both PHA synthase activity and kinetics were determined. The UV/Vis, 1H and 13C
NMR spectral analysis have confirmed that the polymer produced by the yeast
S. pombe strain Q01/
phb is a pure
homopolymer of 3-hydroxybutyric acid.
