[Progress on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)].

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) has developed with more diversity and more advanced manufacturing technology. Diversity has now been reflected by diverse monomers, diverse structures and diverse polymerization modes, giving the concept of "PHAome". In addition, the application of synthetic biology and the development of seawater-based biotechnology reduce the production cost of PHA, making PHA more economically competitive. Some examples of commercialized PHA products are described here. Besides, PHA with high value added applications has been exploited.

Progress on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) / 生物工程学报

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) has developed with more diversity and more advanced manufacturing technology. Diversity has now been reflected by diverse monomers, diverse structures and diverse polymerization modes, giving the concept of "PHAome". In addition, the application of synthetic biology and the development of seawater-based biotechnology reduce the production cost of PHA, making PHA more economically competitive. Some examples of commercialized PHA products are described here. Besides, PHA with high value added applications has been exploited.

The 'PHAome'.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of polyesters synthesized by bacteria. Similarly to the genome, transcriptome, and proteome (the entire array of nucleic acids and proteins present in a cell or population of cells at a given time), the PHA spectrum exhibits diverse and dynamic modifications - the 'PHAome' - reflecting not only by the diversity of monomers, homopolymers, random and block copolymers, functional and graft polymers, molecular weights, and combinations of the above, but also the ranges of PHAs with various molecular weights and monomer ratios that are present at a particular timepoint in a bacterial cell. Echoing the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) launched in 2011 to develop an infrastructure to accelerate advanced materials discovery and deployment, understanding the PHAome and ensuring an ample supply of PHAs based on it will promote the discovery of new properties and applications of this family of advanced materials.