Exploring the flexibility of bacterial polyester synthetic pathways

During his postdoc with Prof. Lenz at UMASS Amherst, and during his early years as a faculty member at UMASS Lowell, Prof. Gross explored the promiscuity of bacteria that synthesize microbial poly(b-hydroxyalkanoates). This work, conducted in parallel to that by Prof. Y. Doi (Riken Univ., Japan), demonstrated that bacterial polyesters can be prepared in a wide variety of structural forms due to the remarkable promiscuity of enzymes involved in poly(b-hydroxyalkanoates) synthesis. Microbial polyesters were prepared with a large number of non-natural repeat units. Examples of new pendant groups or b-substituents incorporated into polymers include cyano- and nitro-phenoxy, highly fluorinated and unsaturated moieties. The first studies that explored the physical and thermal properties of medium-chain length microbial polyesters were reported by Prof. Gross while at UMASS Amherst. Furthermore, deuterated substrates fed to microbial polyester producing organisms provided valuable information on metabolic pathways involved in polyester synthesis.

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