Production and characterization of two medium-chain-length polydroxyalkanoates by engineered strains of Yarrowia lipolytica

BACKGROUND: The oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is an organism of choice for the tailored production of various compounds such as biofuels or biopolymers. When properly engineered, it is capable of producing medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA), a biobased and biodegradable polymer that can be used as bioplastics or biopolymers for environmental and biomedical applications. RESULTS: This study describes the bioproduction and the main properties of two different mcl-PHA polymers. We generated by metabolic engineering, strains of Y. lipolytica capable of accumulating more than 25% (g/g) of mcl-PHA polymers. Depending of the strain genetic background and the culture conditions, we produced (i) a mcl-PHA homopolymer of 3-hydroxydodecanoic acids, with a mass-average molar mass (M(w)) of 316,000 g/mol, showing soft thermoplastic properties with potential applications in packaging and (ii) a mcl-PHA copolymer made of 3-hydroxyoctanoic (3HO), decanoic (3HD), dodecanoic (3HDD) and tetradecanoic (3TD) acids with a M(w) of 128,000 g/mol, behaving like a thermoplastic elastomer with potential applications in biomedical material. CONCLUSION: The ability to engineer Y. lipolytica to produce tailored PHAs together with the range of possible applications regarding their biophysical and mechanical properties opens new perspectives in the field of PHA bioproduction. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-019-1140-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.