Biotechnology Letters 26: 1181–1189, 2004.

© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

1181

Review
Degradation of microbial polyesters

Yutaka Tokiwa∗ & Buenaventurada P. Calabia

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba Central 6, 1-1-1 Higashi,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8566, Japan
∗ Author for correspondence (Fax: +81-29-856-4898; E-mail: y.tokiwa@aist.go.jp)

Received 25 May 2004; Accepted 28 May 2004

Key words: degradation, polyesters, polyhydroxyalkanoates, poly(D-3-hydroxybutyrate), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)-

degrading microorganisms

Abstract
Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), one of the largest groups of thermoplastic polyesters are receiving much
attention as biodegradable substitutes for non-degradable plastics. Poly(D-3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is the most
ubiquitous and most intensively studied PHA. Microorganisms degrading these polyesters are widely distributed
in various environments. Although various PHB-degrading microorganisms and PHB depolymerases have been
studied and characterized, there are still many groups of microorganisms and enzymes with varying properties
awaiting various applications. Distributions of PHB-degrading microorganisms, factors affecting the biodegrada-
bility of PHB, and microbial and enzymatic degradation of PHB are discussed in this review. We also propose an
application of a new isolated, thermophilic PHB-degrading microorganism, Streptomyces strain MG, for producing
pure monomers of PHA and useful chemicals, including D-3-hydroxycarboxylic acids such as D-3-hydroxybutyric
acid, by enzymatic degradation of PHB.

Introduction thus solving the problem of vanishing landfill space.

Several aliphatic polyesters having properties com-
parable to conventional plastics have been developed
and used as biodegradable plastics, such as poly( D-3-
hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), poly(propiolactone) (PPL),
poly(4-hydroxybutyrate) (4PHB), poly(
-caprolac-
tone) (PCL), poly(L-lactide) (PLA), poly(butylene
succinate) (PBS), poly(ethylene succinate) (PES) and
poly(ester carbonate) (PEC) (Figure 1). Among the
biodegradable plastics being studied, those that have
generated the most interest are the microbial polyhy-
droxyalkanoates (PHAs). PHAs are natural biodegrad-
able thermoplastics that are synthesized and accumu-
lated intracellularly during unbalanced growth by a
wide variety of microorganisms. The main advantage
of PHAs over other types of biodegradable plastic is
that they do not require special environmental con-
ditions to be degraded. They can undergo rapid bio-
degradation under aerobic and anaerobic conditions,
Landfills are one of the safest and least expensive ways
to deal with the disposal of polymers.
PHAs have attracted significant industrial interest
because by varying the composition of the carbon
sources, the chemical and physical properties of the
PHA can be altered. For instance, in Alcaligenes eu-
trophus, glucose is used as carbon source for the pro-
duction of PHB. By modifying the carbon source, A.
eutrophus produced copolymer of 3-hydroxybutyrate
and 3-hydroxyvalerate, P(3HB-co-3HV), which is
more flexible than PHB because of reduced crys-
tallinity and is suitable for many commercial appli-
cations (Holmes 1985, Doi 1988). This copolymer
was initially developed by Imperial Chemical Indus-
tries (ICI), under the trade name Biopol. Recently,
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has developed and commer-
cially produced a PHA-based polymer named Nodax.
It is a family of bacterially produced PHA copoly-
1182
Fig. 1. Chemical structures of poly(lactide) (PLA), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), poly(propiolactone) (PPL), poly(
-caprolactone) (PCL),
poly(ethylene succinate) (PES), poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(ester carbonate) (PEC).
mers which consist of 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and
other 3-hydroxyalkanoate units having side groups
greater than or equal to three carbon units. P&G
used genetically modified Pseudomonas species for
the production of this polymer (Noda et al. 2004).
Both Biopol and Nodax have a wide range of appli-
cations in the food industry and in the agricultural and
medical fields. Because PHAs are thermoplastics with
biocompatible properties, they are being developed
as new absorbable materials for implantable medical
applications (Martin & Williams 2003). Genetically
engineered plants producing PHA were recently re-
viewed (Snell & Peoples 2001); however, efficient
PHA production in these plants needs to be fur-
ther improved to make it competitive with microbial
fermentation process.
PHAs are classified by the number of carbon atoms
in the monomer units. These are the short-chain-length
PHA (PHASCL ) which consists of 3–5 carbon atoms,
and the medium-chain-length PHA (PHAMCL ) which
has 6–15 carbon atoms (Anderson et al. 1990). Not
many bacteria are able to synthesize PHA that con-
sists of both PHASCL and PHAMCL (Doi et al. 1995,
Lee et al. 1995). PHASCL have a high degree of crys-
tallinity and are brittle and stiff, while PHAMCL are
elastomers with low crystallinity, low melting point
and low tensile strength (Holmes 1988, Gagnon et al.
1992). This present review focuses mainly on PHB
because it is one of the most abundant PHAs in nature
and it has several useful properties such as biocom-
patibility, optical purity and piezoelectricity (Holmes
1988, Doi 1990). Optical polymers, e.g. PHB and
PLA, have a high melting point so that their properties
are comparable to conventional plastics.
Distribution of PHB-degrading microorganisms
To avoid environmental problems caused by the de-
gradation of polyesters, it is essential to study the
capacity of the natural environment in the degradation
of polymers, the adverse effects of the degradation
products produced after degradation, and the role of
polymer-degrading microorganisms. Ecological and
taxonomic studies on the abundance and diversity
of microorganisms in the different environments are
necessary, since they are responsible for the decom-
position of plastic materials. The degradability of
biodegradable plastics depends on the degrading or-
ganisms available in the environment. Polymers are
degraded in soils by the action of a wide range of
microorganisms. The plate count and the clear-zone
methods are very efficient methods in the evaluation

Fig. 2. Colonies of Streptomyces sp. strain MG and clear zones
formed on (a) PHB after 2 d, (b) PES after 7 d, (c) PEC after 7
d cultivation at 50 ◦ C. Scale bar = 10 µm.
of the population of polymer-degrading microorgan-
isms in the environment (Nishida & Tokiwa 1993).
For comparison, we investigated the distribution of
aliphatic polyester-degrading microorganisms at 30 ◦ C
and 50 ◦ C and found that at both temperatures the pop-
ulations of polyester-degrading microorganisms were
in the same order: PHB = PCL > PBS > PLA
(Nishida & Tokiwa 1993, Pranamuda et al. 1997,
Tansengco & Tokiwa 1998a). In addition, microorgan-
isms degrading poly(propiolactone) (PPL), a chemo-
synthetic polymer whose structural units are similar
to PHB, were found to be widely distributed in the
environment, similar to those degrading PHB and PCL
(Figure 1) (Nishida et al. 1998).
Given the fact that a variety of different polymer-
degrading microorganisms are present in various en-
vironments, it is necessary to identify their phylogen-
1183
etic affiliation. Several studies on microbial degrad-
ation of polymers have been conducted by isolating
the strains from the natural environment and then ana-
lyzing their phylogenetic affiliation (Suyama et al.
1998, Nishida et al. 2000). Suyama et al. (1998)
determined the phylogenetic positions of 39 different
soil bacteria capable of degrading aliphatic polyes-
ters such as PHB, PCL, PBS and PLA by 16S rDNA
sequencing. All isolates belong to the classes of Firmi-
cutes and Proteobacteria, and PHB-degrading isolates
were distributed in all of these taxa. We also investi-
gated the distribution of polymer-degraders among ac-
tinomycetes obtained from culture collections with
regard to their phylogenetic affiliations. The results
showed that PHB-degraders were widely distributed
among the families of Pseudonocardiaceae and re-
lated genera, Micromonosporaceae, Thermonospor-
aceae, Streptosporangiaceae and Streptomycetaceae
(Tokiwa & Jarerat 2003).
Factors affecting the biodegradability of PHB
The chemical and physical properties of a polyester
have a strong influence on its biodegradability. Lipases
can hydrolyze aliphatic polyesters other than optic-
ally active polyesters such as PHB and PLA (Tokiwa
& Suzuki 1977). Molecular weight (Mn) is one of
the factors determining the biodegradation of plastics.
Low molecular weight is favorable for biodegradation.
We reported that the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis of
PCL diol by Rhizopus delemar lipase was faster at the
smaller molecular weight (Tokiwa & Suzuki 1978).
The melting temperature (Tm) of a polymer has
a great effect on enzymatic degradability. Generally,
the higher the melting point of polyester, the lower
the biodegradability tends to be. The enzymatic de-
gradability decreases with increasing Tm. The purified
lipase of R. delemar effectively hydrolyzed low melt-
ing point polyesters like PCL, PPL, poly(butylene
adipate) (PBA) but not PHB (Tokiwa & Suzuki 1978).
PHB is a high crystalline thermoplastic with a melt-
ing temperature around 178 ◦ C. We also investigated
the effect of higher order structure on polymer biode-
gradability. A bacterium named Pseudomonas strain
SC-17 was used on heat-treated samples of PHB film.
We found out that higher order structure properties
such as crystallinity and modulus of elasticity sup-
pressed the polymer degradability. Scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) observation of the degraded PHB
film revealed the presence of hemispherical holes on
1184

the film surface owing to colonization of the surface

by strain SC-17. The results implied that the surface
of PHB film is necessary as a growing field for the
bacteria (Nishida & Tokiwa 1992). Kumagai et al.
(1992) reported that the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis
of PHB films by the PHB depolymerase of Alcaligenes
feacalis is strongly dependent on the degree of crys-
tallinity of PHB film. Enzymatic degradation of PHB
films decreases with increasing crystallinity.
Furthermore, the rate of biodegradation of PHB
is influenced by a number of factors such as: the
microbial population in a given environment, the tem-
perature and the properties of the plastic material to be
degraded.

Microbial degradation of PHB

Chowdhury (1963) found the first PHA-degrading mi-

croorganisms belonging to Bacillus, Pseudomonas
and Streptomyces. Since then, a number of aerobic and
anaerobic PHB-degrading microorganisms have been
isolated from various ecosystems. For reviews see Lee
(1996), Jendrossek et al. (1996) and references cited
therein.
The clear-zone method is the most widely used
for the isolation and screening of polymer degrading
microorganisms. The formation of clear zones around
the colonies is an indication that the polymer is hy-
drolyzed by the enzyme into water-soluble products
(Nishida et al. 1993). The main advantage of this test
is that it is generally fast and simple, and allows the
simultaneous execution of a great number of tests. As
previously mentioned, PHB-degrading microorgan-
isms are widely distributed in different environments.
The percentage of PHB-degrading microorganisms in
the environment was estimated to be 0.5–9.6% of the
total colonies (Suyama et al. 1998).
Mergaert et al. (1993) isolated 295 strains capable
of degrading PHB and P(3HB-co-3HV) copolymer
from soils by the clear zone method. Most of the PHB-
degrading microorganisms consist of a wide range
of different microorganisms at ambient or mesophilic
temperatures while only a few species were capable of
degradation at higher temperatures. Thus, there is little
information on microbial degradation of PHB at high
temperature. Although PHB has relatively high crys-
tallinity, it is sensitive to degrading enzymes at high
temperatures, allowing its rapid degradation (Takeda
et al. 1998). Studies on thermophilic microorganisms
that could degrade aliphatic polyesters will be very
Fig. 3. Scanning electron micrographs of PHB films. (a) Unin-
oculated PHB film, (b) Streptomyces strain MG in the process of
degrading PHB, (c) hemispherical holes formed on the film surface.
Scale bar = 10 µm.
useful in high-temperature composting technology. A
high temperature will prevent the degradation sys-
tem acting as the breeding ground from pathogenic
microorganisms.
The population of PHB-degrading microorganisms
in soil has been calculated as 5–86% (3.5 × 104 −
1.8 ×107 c.f.u./g wet wt soil) of the total population of
microorganisms growing on PHB agar plates at 50 ◦ C
(Tansengco & Tokiwa 1998a). Takeda et al. (1998)
isolated a thermophilic strain of Leptothrix sp. that
degraded PHB but the focus has so far been mainly on
enzyme degradation. Several studies on microbial de-
gradation of polyesters at high temperatures have been
conducted in our laboratory by isolating microorgan-
isms from different ecosystems. Tansengco & Tokiwa
(1998b) examined the biodegradability of different
aliphatic polyesters at 50 ◦ C by an isolated Bacillus
strain TT96. The bacterium can degrade PHB, PCL,

PBS and PES films. After 2 weeks’ incubation at
50 ◦ C, 14.3% (w/w) of PHB film was degraded, while
PCL samples were completely degraded. The percent
degradation of PES and PBS were 5% (w/w) and 4.4%
(w/w), respectively.
In addition, a thermotolerant Aspergillus sp. ST-01,
isolated from soil was able to degrade PCL, PHB and
poly(butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA) at 50 ◦ C.
The strain degraded PCL completely after 6 days’
cultivation and more than 90% (weight) of the film
samples of PHB and PBSA were degraded by this
fungus. Among the five thermotolerant and thermo-
philic fungi from the culture collection of the Institute
of Fermentation, Osaka (IFO), only 1 strain (Ther-
moascus aurantiacus) degraded PHB, PCL and PBS
(Sanchez et al. 2000). Most recently, a new thermo-
philic Streptomyces strain MG capable of degrading
PHB at 50 ◦ C was isolated from soil (Calabia &
Tokiwa 2004). This actinomycete could also degrade
other polymers as confirmed by the clear zone method.
The photographs of the colonies of strain MG and
the clear zones formed on PHB, PES, and PEC are
shown in Figure 2. A weak but clearly detectable hy-
drolysis was observed on PCL and PBS plates (photos
not shown).
The microbial degradation of PHB films at 50 ◦ C
by Streptomyces strain MG was observed using SEM.
The surface of the uninoculated control film was rough
and uneven, which resulted from the evaporation of
solvent after casting (Figure 3a). PHB film was dir-
ectly retrieved from the culture broth after 72 h incub-
ation. Adherence of the microbial cells was observed
on the entire PHB film surface (Figure 3b). The film
was washed with distilled water, dried under vacuum
and observed once again by SEM. The film surface
exposed to strain MG had a rough appearance and
possessed numerous pits of varying size (Figure 3c).
The surface layer and the lateral portions of the film
attacked by the microorganisms began to disintegrate.
The formation of hemispherical holes on the film was
attributable to the microbial actions of the cells at-
tached to the film, indicating that degradation tends
to occur in the colonization of PHB surface by Strep-
tomyces sp. strain MG. Biodegradation starts when
microorganisms begin growing on the surface of the
film and secrete enzymes that breakdown the polymer
into molecular building blocks. This indicates that film
surfaces are favorable microhabitats for microorgan-
isms. The PHB film was completely degraded after
incubation for 6 d at 50 ◦ C. The degrading-ability of
Streptomyces strain MG, Aspergillus ST-01, Bacillus
1185
TT96 on various film samples at 50 ◦ C is shown in
Table 1.
Enzymatic degradation of PHB
The enzymatic degradation of polymers by hydrolysis
is a two-step process: first, the enzyme binds to the
polymer substrate then subsequently catalyzes a hy-
drolytic cleavage. PHB can be degraded either by the
action of intracellular and extracellular depolymerases
in PHB-degrading bacteria and fungi. Intracellular
degradation is the hydrolysis of an endogenous car-
bon reservoir by the accumulating bacteria themselves
while extracellular degradation is the utilization of
an exogenous carbon source not necessarily by the
accumulating microorganisms.
There are two types of PHB polymers: native and
denatured PHB granules. Native PHB granules con-
taining lipids and proteins are rapidly hydrolyzed by
intracellular PHB depolymerase. On the other hand,
denatured granules, which are partially crystalline, are
hardly hydrolyzed by intracellular depolymerases but
can be degraded by extracellular PHB depolymerases
into water-soluble products.
Starch is one example of a natural storage poly-
mer which is composed of two types of the repeating
glucose of polymer chains, amylose and amylopectin.
These tiny white granules are relatively dense, insol-
uble and hydrate only slightly in cold water (Swinkels
1985). Similar to PHB, the native form of starch has
semi-crystalline and amorphous layers containing lip-
ids and proteins. Neither PHB nor starch granules
can be purified completely, thus they cannot be used
in some applications due to their impurities. The en-
zymatic degradation system of starch seems to be
similar to that of PHB.
Intracellular PHB depolymerase
Although intracellular PHB-depolymerases play a
number of roles in the degradation of PHB, little
is known about the enzymes involved in the intra-
cellular degradation of this polymer, mainly due to
the close association of the degrading enzymes with
PHB-containing granules and the dependency of the
enzyme activity on the structural integrity of the
granules (Merrick & Doudoroff 1964, Tanaka et al.
1981). Few studies on the intracellular degradation
of PHB have been published. Merrick & Doudoroff
(1964) were the first to report an intracellular PHB
1186
Table 1. Degradation of various film samples by microorganisms at 50 ◦ C.

Polyester film Mn Degradation of polyester (% w/w)

Streptomyces MG Aspergillus ST-01 Bacillus TT96

PHB 2.1 × 105 100 93 14

PCL 6.7 × 104 71 97 100
PBSA 4.9 × 104 92 95 ND
PES 5.9 × 104 ND ND 5
PBS 4.8 × 104 0 0 4
PLA 2.1 × 105 0 0 1

PHB: poly(D-3-hydroxybutyrate); PCL: poly(
-caprolactone); PBSA: poly(butylene succinate-

co-adipate); PES: poly(ethylene succinate); PBS: poly(butylene succinate); PLA: poly(L-lactide).
ND: Not determined.

depolymerase system, wherein soluble enzymes from
Rhodospirillum rubrum were used to degrade native
PHB granules isolated from Bacillus megaterium. The
system is made up of a thermostable activator and ther-
molabile depolymerase. In this artificial system, the
hydrolysis of native PHB granules needs pre-treatment
with either activator or trypsin prior to hydrolysis by
the depolymerase. The first sequence of an intracel-
lular depolymerase was reported by Saegusa et al.
(2001). They cloned an intracellular PHB depoly-
merase (PhaZ1Reu ) from Ralstonia eutropha H16 that
could degrade amorphous but not crystalline PHB by
the shotgun method.
Most recently, an intracellular 3-hydroxybutyrate
(3HB)-oligomer hydrolase of R. eutropha was purified
from Escherichia coli. The purified enzyme efficiently
hydrolyzed linear and cyclic 3HB oligomers and could
degrade artificial amorphous PHB at a rate similar
to that of PhaZ1Reu. The enzyme appeared to hydro-
lyze linear oligomers such as an exo-type hydrolase,
even though it could degrade cyclic 3HB-oligomers.
Therefore, it utilizes both endo- and exo-modes of hy-
drolysis. The kinetic properties of this enzyme were
almost the same as those of the extracellular 3HB-
oligomerhydrolase from R. picketii T1 , which was
concluded to be an exo-type hydrolase (Kobayashi
et al. 2003). Although intracellular PHB depoly-
merases have been studied for a number of years,
the details of the system are still not clear because
intracellular degradation of PHB seems to be very
complex.
Extracellular PHB depolymerase
Extracellular PHB depolymerases are secreted from
various microorganisms and play an important role in
the metabolism of PHB in the environment. Several
PHB depolymerases have been isolated and purified
from various microorganisms belonging to the Alc-
aligenes (Tanio et al. 1982, Shirakura et al. 1986,
Bachman & Seebach 1999), Comamonas (Jendrossek
et al. 1993, Kasuya et al. 1994) and Pseudomonas spe-
cies (Nakayama et al. 1985, Mukai et al. 1994, 1999,
Schober et al. 2000). This shows that extracellular
PHB depolymerases are ubiquitous in the environ-
ment. Analysis of their primary structures revealed
that the enzymes are composed of substrate-binding
domain, catalytic domain, and a linker region connect-
ing the two domains. The substrate-binding domain
plays a role in binding to the solid PHB. The catalytic
domain contains the catalytic machinery composed of
a catalytic triad (Ser-His-Asp). The serine is part of a
lipase box pentapeptide Gly-X-Ser-X-Gly, which has
been found in all known hydrolases such as lipases,
esterases and serine proteases (Jaeger et al. 1994).
The properties of PHB depolymerases have been
studied extensively and share several biochemical
properties such as: relatively small Mn , below 100 kDa
and most PHA depolymerases are between 40 and
50 kDa; do not bind to anion exchangers such as
DEAE but have strong affinity to hydrophobic materi-
als such as butyl-Toyopearl and phenyl-Toyopearl; op-
timum pH is between 7.5–9.8, only the depolymerase
of Pseudomonas picketti and Penicillium funiculosum
have pH optima between 5.5 and 7; highly stable
at a wide range of pH, temperature, ionic strength,
etc; most PHA depolymerases are inhibited by ser-
ine esterase inhibitors such as diidopropyl-fluoryl-
phosphate or acylsulfonyl compounds, which have
been shown to bind covalently to the active site serine
of serine hydrolases (Jendrossek 1998).
Apparently, most PHA-degrading bacteria that
have been analyzed produce only one PHA depoly-
merase. Pseudomonas lemoigne, one of the best-

studied PHA-degrading bacteria, however, produces at
least five different extracellular PHA-depolymerases
which differ slightly in their biochemical properties.
The three PHA-depolymerases (PHB depolymerases
A, B and D) are specific for PHB and P(3HB-co-
3HV) with a low 3-HV content. The other two PHA
depolymerases (PHB depolymerase C and poly( D-3-
hydroxyvalerate (PHV) depolymerase) also degrade
both PHB and PHV (Jendrossek 2001). In addition,
a strain of Alcaligenes faecalis T1, which was isolated
from activated sludge, excreted D-3-hydroxybutyrate
oligomer hydrolase, in addition to an extracellular
PHB depolymerase (Shirakura et al. 1983). It is likely
that our isolates Streptomyces strain MG, Aspergillus
ST-01, Bacillus TT96 produced more than one enzyme
that could degrade PHB, PCL, PBS, PBSA and PES.
This suggests that the enzymes produced by these
strains have a wide range of substrate specificity.
Further study is necessary to find out whether the
enzymes produced by these polyester-degrading mi-
croorganisms are composed of two or more types of
enzyme that are capable of degrading PHB, PCL,
PBS, PBSA and PES. PHB and PCL are both de-
graded by these microorganisms. PHB is a microbial
polyester with high melting point and is degraded
by PHB depolymerases whereas PCL is a synthetic
semi-crystalline aliphatic polyester with low melting
point and can be hydrolyzed by lipases but not PHB
depolymerase. On the other hand, lipases cannot hy-
drolyze PHB (Tokiwa & Suzuki 1977, Tanio et al.
1982). However, several lipases hydrolyze polyes-
ters of ω-hydroxyalkanoic acids such as PCL and
poly(4-hydroxybutyrate).
Lipases have a common amino acid sequence
around the active site, Gly-X1 -Ser-X2 -Gly, which was
also observed in PHA depolymerases. The X1 residue
is a leucine residue in PHA depolymerases instead
of a histidine one in bacterial lipases. This finding
suggested that Pseudomonas alcaligenes and P. aer-
uginosa lipases and PHA depolymerases may share
a similar mechanism of substrate hydrolysis (Jaeger
et al. 1995). As shown in Figure 4, three kinds of en-
zymes, namely PHB depolymerases, PLA-degrading
enzymes and lipases, are involved in the aliphatic
polyesters degradation. Lipases hydrolyze the ester
bonds of polyesters having a relatively large number
of methylene groups, e.g. PCL, PEC, PES, PBS, and
PBSA. Interestingly, lipases cannot degrade the opti-
cally active polymers with high Tm such as PHB, PHV
and PLA.
1187
Fig. 4. Substrate specificities of lipase, PHB-depolymerase and
PLA-degrading enzyme. Poly(D-3-hydroxybutyrate) ( D-PHB),
poly(DL-hydroxybutyrate) ( DL-PHB), poly(D-hydroxyvalerate)
(D-PHV), poly(L-lactide) (L-PLA), poly(DL-lactide) (DL-PLA).
Conclusion and future prospects
Biodegradable plastics, such as PHB, continue to
make progress in both the commercial and scientific
fields. However, their use as a replacement for con-
ventional plastics in a wide range of applications has
been hindered by their brittleness, low mechanical
strength and high production cost. Improvements in
the fermentation technology and genetically modified
strains are being developed for the economical and
efficient production of PHB (Lee et al. 1999, Tagu-
chi et al. 2003). Many fine chemicals produced by
chemical processes can also be prepared using mi-
crobial fermentation (Lee et al. 2004). Our isolate,
Streptomyces strain MG, is a good candidate for the
production of pure D-3-hydroxybutyric acid, which
is the main component of the degradation products
obtained by enzymatic degradation of PHB (Calabia
& Tokiwa 2004). A pure monomer of PHB, D-3-
hydroxybutyric acid, is also an important precursor
of 4-acetoxyazetidinone, which is used in making car-
bapenem antibiotics (Chiba & Nakai 1985). Intensive
studies on this newfound strain as a useful microor-
ganism for industrial application are necessary.
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