Controlled Compartmentation of Enzymes for Plant Metabolic Engineering

As well as being produced non-renewably from petroleum, nondegradable plastic poses issues both to the environment and human health. Biodegradable polyesters, such as poly-3-hydroxybutarate (PHB), are emerging as a way of mitigating these effects, and may become critical given the increasing dependence on and demand of plastics. Producing PHBs in plants has proved to be challenging because PHB production seems to affect the growth and development of a healthy plant. We propose a metabolic engineering strategy involving compartmentation and temporal control over PHB production in plants. We suggest that such a strategy will alleviate the negative effects of PHB production on plant health and allow for plant production to become competitive with petroleum-derived plastics.