Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are microbial polyesters which, apart from their primary storage role, enhance the stress robustness of PHA accumulating cells against various stressors. PHA also represent interesting alternatives to petrochemical polymers, which can be produced from renewable resources employing approaches of microbial biotechnology. During biotechnological processes, bacterial cells are exposed to various stressor factors such as fluctuations in temperature, osmolarity, pH-value, elevated pressure or the presence of microbial inhibitors. This review summarizes how PHA helps microbial cells to cope with biotechnological process-relevant stressors and, vice versa, how various stress conditions can affect PHA production processes. The review suggests a fundamentally new strategy for PHA production: the fine-tuned exposure to selected stressors, which might be used to boost PHA production and even to tailor their structure.

Faculty of Chemistry Brno University of Technology Purkynova 118 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Chemistry NAWI Graz University of Graz Heinrichstrasse 28 6 8010 Graz Austria; ARENA Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Ressourcenschonende and Nachhaltige Technologien Inffeldgasse 21b 11 8010 Graz Austria

References provided by Crossref.org

Evaluating stress resilience of cyanobacteria through flow cytometry and fluorescent viability assessment

A Comparison of the Effects of Continuous Illumination and Day/Night Regimes on PHB Accumulation in Synechocystis Cells

Glycogen, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) and pigment accumulation in three Synechocystis strains when exposed to a stepwise increasing salt stress

The First Insight into Polyhydroxyalkanoates Accumulation in Multi-Extremophilic Rubrobacter xylanophilus and Rubrobacter spartanus