Biodegradable non-fossil plastics as food packaging material

Novel strategy for PHB production by modification of oil accumulating yeast: Food packaging is a vital part of food technology and distribution. The food industry generates enormous amounts of waste in the form of fossil non-degradable plastics, which results in environmental pollution. About two third of plastics is packagingt is within the food sector. The need for biobased and biodegradable polymers as food packaging material is urgent and very large. The present application aims to develop a new efficient and robust microbial biocatalyst able to convert available and renewable carbon sources, such as glycerol, waste stream sugars and second generation sugars, into the polymer poly-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). This polymer is a suitable component in biodegradable and biobased food packaging.A novel approach will be applied in the project, which is to use oleaginous yeasts, i.e. yeasts which accumulate large amounts of lipids. In the lipid biosynthesis, Acetyl-CoA is a central node, and by introducing a short heterologous pathway, carbon flux will be channeled towards PHB biosynthesis. Specific objectives are: 1) Identification of the most promising oleaginous yeast host strains from our collection of oleaginous strains, 2) mapping gene expression in the lipid accumulation phase to identify targets for deletion/repression and overexpression, 3) Introducing a suitable expression cassette for a bacterial heterologous pathway into the selected host strain and 4) Evaluating the obtained strains under process relevant conditions.