Patent ID: 8039237

Claim:
A method of producing a glycolic acid-containing polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer comprising expressing in an organism selected from the group consisting of yeast, bacteria, fungi and plants, (a) heterologous polynucleotides encoding enzymes required for production of polyhydroxyalkanoate selected from the group consisting of a polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase, a beta-ketothiolase, and an aceto-acetyl CoA reductase, (b) an acyl-CoA transferase, and (c) at least one enzyme for the production of glycolyl Co-A selected from the group consisting of aldehyde dehydrogenases, diol oxidoreductases, enoyl-CoA dehydratase, beta acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, thiolases and acyl-CoA transferases, wherein at least one of the polynucleotides encoding an enzyme is heterologous, and providing 1,4-butanediol which is converted into glycolyl-CoA and 4-hydroxybutyryl-CoA monomers by enzymes expressed by the organism and polymerized by a PHA synthase to produce a poly(4-hydroxybutyrate-co-glycolate) polymer.