Cultivation in a Natural Microbial Community Enhances the Industrial Performance of a Genetically Engineered Cyanobacterium for Bioplastic Production.

ABSTRACT: Large-scale production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a biodegradable bioplastic, using genetically engineered cyanobacteria offers a sustainable alternative to petrochemical-derived plastics. However, monoculture-based phototrophic systems face major limitations, such as poor resilience in large-scale reactors, hindering industrial upscaling. To address these challenges, we replaced the native cyanobacterium of a natural microbial consortium with a genetically engineered Synechocystis strain optimised for PHB production, establishing what we define a hybrid photosynthetic microbiome. This new community preserved the ecological structure and stability of the original microbiome while gaining synthetic production capacity. Compared to the axenic strain, the hybrid system exhibited enhanced r

SUBMITTER: Zini A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12819161 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature