Metabolix Demonstrates Improved PHA Production in Tobacco
Research Furthers Potential for Biobased Plastics and Chemicals in Non-Food Bioenergy Crops
The plastid genome of the research crop tobacco was engineered using Metabolix's multi-gene expression technology, resulting in fertile transgenic plants producing PHA at levels of up to nine percent of the total plant weight. PHA levels of up to 17 percent were found in leaf tissue. Metabolix's engineered tobacco plants produce 10 times more PHA bioplastic than previously published reports for tobacco. These findings continue to demonstrate the Company's ground-breaking scientific capabilities and continued progress on using new tools to improve its programs to develop advanced biomass crops as biorefinery feedstocks.
A detailed scientific paper entitled "High
levels of bioplastic are produced in fertile transplastomic tobacco
plants engineered with a synthetic operon for production of
polyhydroxybutyrate" was published online in Plant Physiology,
a peer-reviewed journal from the
PHAs are a family of renewable polymeric carbon storage materials, which
have a broad range of industrial applications as performance,
biodegradable bioplastics
and as renewable starting materials for the production of a number of
existing specialty and commodity chemicals. As polymers, PHA bioplastics
offer excellent performance in use and have the unique ability to
biodegrade in a wide range of environments including compost, soil,
wetlands, marine and anaerobic digestion facilities. As a starting
material for the production of renewable chemicals, PHAs offer
exceptional, highly efficient, low cost recovery and conversion
opportunities for the production of a number of specialty and commodity
chemicals. By producing PHAs directly in biomass crops,
"The demonstration of this new approach to increase PHA production in
the model biomass crop tobacco is an important milestone in further
demonstrating the scientific and technical capabilities of the Company
in the crop science field. This also represents continued progress
towards our longer term objective for the biomass crop program and the
recognition of our research by a peer-reviewed journal," said Dr.
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