Butanol in Plants Project

The butanol project’s goal is to synthetically produce the enzymes that make up the University of California’s cyanobacteria pathway to produce n-butanol within physcomitrella. Thereby making a plant directly produce n-butanol, an industrially relevant compound that can serve as a more efficient biofuel than ethanol. The project took on another goal when it was realized that an intermediary compound in the pathway could be used to produce (R)-Polyhydroxybutyrate, a biodegradable plastic.

Introduction

Butanol is a four carbon alcohol with several different industrial uses such as the creation of polymers and pharmaceuticals. However, its most notable use is as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Butanol is fairly non-polar due to its longer hydrocarbon chain, and is more similar to gasoline than other small alcohols such as ethanol. The fact that it is similar in function to gasoline means that butanol can be used in automobiles without any changes. This is significant because butanol can be synthesized from biomass. Organisms such as cyanobacteria, diatoms, and the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum have already been shown to produce butanol using various methods.

Our other potential product is polyhydroxybutyrate or PHB. PHB is a polymer in the polyesters class that has many uses similar to other plastics of the same variety. The reason this one is an interesting option is the fact that it is nontoxic and biodegradable. This fact makes PHB an excellent choice for potential use in the medical industry as well as others. Biosynthesis of the polymer is currently achieved using microorganisms. Our goal was to extend the production capabilities to plants; specifically Physcomitrella patens.

Background

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Method

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Results

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Discussion

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Further Study

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