The ‘PHAome’

• Published in: Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) Vol. 33; no. 10; pp. 559 - 564
• Main Authors: Chen, Guo-Qiang, Hajnal, Ivan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2015; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Acids; Bacteriology; Biomimetic Materials - chemical synthesis; block copolymer; E coli; Engineering; functional polymer; Genomes; Halomonas - metabolism; homopolymer; Infrastructure; Integrated approach; Internal Medicine; Laboratories; Materials Genome Initiative; Metabolism; Molecular Weight; Oxidation-Reduction; PHA; PHAome; PHAomics; PHB; Polyethylene glycol; Polyhydroxyalkanoates - biosynthesis; Polyhydroxyalkanoates - chemical synthesis; Polyhydroxyalkanoates - isolation & purification; Polymerization; Polymers; Pseudomonas - metabolism; R&D; random copolymer; Research & development; Sodium; block copolymer; homopolymer; PHAome; PHA; functional polymer; random copolymer; PHAomics; PHB; Materials Genome Initiative
• ISSN: 0167-7799; 1879-3096
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.07.006

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.