Y. Poirier et al., SYNTHESIS OF HIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT POLY([R]-(-)-3-HYDROXYBUTYRATE) INTRANSGENIC ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA PLANT-CELLS, International journal of biological macromolecules, 17(1), 1995, pp. 7-12
High-molecular-weight poly([R]-(-)-3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a biodegr
adable thermoplastic, was produced from a suspension culture of transg
enic Arabidopsis thaliana plant cells expressing two genes from the ba
cterium Alcaligenes eutrophus involved in the synthesis of PHB. The mo
lecular structure of the plant-produced polymer was analysed by gas ch
romatography, mass spectrometry, proton nuclear magnetic resonance spe
ctroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, spectropolarimetry, differential sc
anning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and size exclusion chromatograph
y. The results indicate that the polymer from transgenic plants appear
s to have a chemical structure identical to that of PHB produced by ba
cteria. However, the molecular weight distribution of the plant-produc
ed PHB was much broader than that of typical bacterial PHB.