Corroborative studies on chain packing characteristics of biological medium-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates with different monomeric composition

Khairul Anwar Ishak; N Idayu Zahid; Thamil Selvi Velayutham; M Faisal Khyasudeen; Mohamad Suffian Mohamad Annuar

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131973

Corroborative studies on chain packing characteristics of biological medium-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates with different monomeric composition

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Apr 29;269(Pt 1):131973. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131973. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Khairul Anwar Ishak¹, N Idayu Zahid², Thamil Selvi Velayutham³, M Faisal Khyasudeen², Mohamad Suffian Mohamad Annuar⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Systems Biology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia; Centre for Fundamental and Frontier Sciences in Nanostructure Self-Assembly, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: ka.ishak@ukm.edu.my.
² Centre for Fundamental and Frontier Sciences in Nanostructure Self-Assembly, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
³ Centre for Fundamental and Frontier Sciences in Nanostructure Self-Assembly, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴ Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

PMID: 38692536
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131973

Abstract

Medium-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) with varied monomeric compositions were biosynthesized by producer bacteria fed with different fatty acids as carbon source. Octanoic-, lauric-, stearic-, and oleic acids were used to produce four types of mcl-PHAs viz. PHA-OC, PHA-LA, PHA-ST, and PHA-OL, respectively. The mcl-PHAs as film-casted preparations exhibit distinct traits e.g., PHA-OC and PHA-ST films are less flexible than PHA-LA while PHA-OL is a sticky, glue-like material; PHA-ST is opaque whereas PHA-OC, PHA-LA, and PHA-OL displayed transparent layers. The observation is attributed to polymer chain packing and side chain crystallization. A structure-property investigation of these biopolymers was carried out employing different spectroscopic and microscopic analyses in addition to thermal analyses. Comparative analyses of the results were applied in the interpretation and discussion of structure-property relationship.

Keywords: Biological polymer; Physicochemical characterization; Poly-3-hydroxyalkanoate; Spectroscopy analyses.