Patent ID: 11965203
Assignee: NEWLIGHT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: Biotechnology (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C | IPC C

Claim 0:
1. A low energy method for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production in a methanotrophic culture, the method comprising:
(a) contacting a culture of methanotrophic microorganisms with a medium comprising copper, one or more additional nutrients, and a carbon-containing gas that can be metabolized by said culture;
(b) incubating said culture in said medium to cause growth of said culture;
(c) reducing the concentration of copper in said medium to cause production of soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) and/or pMMO by said culture;
wherein said concentration of copper causes the production of sMMO in some methanotrophic microorganisms,

(d) reducing the concentration of one or more of said nutrients in said medium to cause said culture to generate PHA from said carbon-containing gas;
wherein PHA is preferentially generated by pMMO,

(e) returning the culture to the growth conditions of step (b);
wherein microorganisms having higher intracellular concentrations of pMMO and PHA grow at a greater rate as compared to those with lower intracellular pMMO and PHA concentrations; and

(f) repeating steps (c), (d) and (e), wherein said repetitions selectively favor growth of microorganisms that produce PHA via pMMO, thereby facilitating the pMMO-mediated production of PHA at reduced copper concentrations, and resulting in a culture comprising microorganisms that use pMMO to produce PHA; wherein
the energy required to carry out the process is reduced as compared to other carbon based PHA production methods.