title: Enzymatic and whole-cell synthesis of lactate-containing polyesters: toward the complete biological production of polylactate.
abstract: The importance of polylactic acid, a representative bio-based polyester, has been established on a worldwide scale in response to emerging global environmental problems such as green house gas emission and limited petroleum consumption. The current methods for generating this bio-based polymer involve biological synthesis and lactic acid (LA) fermentation, followed by chemical ring-opening polymerization. Among the research community working on polyhydroxyalkanoate polyesters, the prospect of direct biological synthesis of LA into a polymeric form is very attractive from the academic and industrial perspectives. In 2008, this challenge was met for the first time by the discovery of an "LA-polymerizing enzyme". Using this novel enzyme, the metabolic engineering approach outlined here provided an entirely new, single organism generation of the polymer. This is a major breakthrough in the field. In this review, we provide an overview of the whole-cell synthesis of LA-containing polyesters in comparison with conventional lipase-catalyzed polymer synthesis in terms of both the concepts and strategies of their synthetic processes.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biotechnology and Macromolecular Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ken'ichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taguchi
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D004146:Dioxanes / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation; D006358:Hot Temperature; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D008049:Lipase / Q000378:metabolism; D011091:Polyesters / Q000378:metabolism*; D011108:Polymers
chemical_list: D004146:Dioxanes; D011091:Polyesters; D011108:Polymers; D019344:Lactic Acid; C033616:poly(lactide); C091880:dilactide; D008049:Lipase