Plastics are the most widely used synthetic polymers. Due to their non-degradative nature, synthetic polymers have become an environmental eyesore. Biodegradable plastics like Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) comprise a group of natural biodegradable polyesters that are synthesized by microorganisms. Polyhydroxyalkanoates were firstly discovered in prokaryotes as carbon and energy storage materials. Plastics are utilized in almost every sector. Plastics being xenobiotic are recalcitrant to microbial degradation. Polyhydroxyalkanoates have gained major importance due to their structural diversity and close analogy to plastics. Polyhydroxyalkanoates have promising properties such as high biodegradability in different environments. Polyhydroxyalkanoates can be degraded by many microorganisms using intracellular or extracellular PHA depolymerases. PHA depolymerases are very diverse in sequence and substrate specificity but share a common α/β-hydrolase fold and a catalytic triad, which is also found in other α/β-hydrolases. Polyhydroxyalkanoates, a biodegradable plastic, was produced in microorganisms and was first discovered by Lemoigne in 1925. It has a relatively high melting point and it gets crystallized rapidly. It has high melting temperature (175°C) and relatively high tensile strength (30-35 MPa).
Polyhydroxyalkanoates database is a single repository of genes and its genomic information is responsible for Polyhydroxyalkanoates to synthesize biodegradable plastics. It is based on genomic characterization of intermediates of Polyhydroxyalkanoates (CAB genes, responsible for biodegradable plastic synthesis) metabolic pathway.
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