Methylocystis parvus: genomics, engineering and sustainable PHB production
Publication Date
July 16, 2024
Creator
Abstract
Methylocystis parvus OBBP is a gram-negative aerobic methanotroph of the phylum Alphaproteobacteria. The type species of its genus and type strain of its species. Methanotrophs are industrially relevant organisms defined by their ability to use methane as their sole carbon and energy source. Among many qualities M. parvus is capable of the production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) which is biodegradable and if produced from biogas, is a bioplastic meaning it is produced from renewable biomass. PHB produced by methanotrophs thus has the potential to aid in the current climate crises of plastic waste and greenhouse gas emission fitting into a circular carbon economy.
Across this thesis this goal is developed towards first through genetics assembling a full genome of M. parvus OBBP and demonstrating CRISPR genetic editing in it. This forms the first published genetic editing in M. parvus. This is followed by chapters investigating PHB fermentation in methanotrophs particularly using real-world biogas comparing multiple strains and scaling production up to 1L fermentation bioreactors. A nanopore based 16S sequencing method for investigation of mixed culture fermentation species abundance is also demonstrated evaluating two PHB producing mixed cultures. Work in this thesis has contributed to three published papers which are included at the end.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
School of Life Sciences
eprints ID
77436
UoN Repository URI
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Name
Final Thesis With Papers.pdf
Type
Full-text
Description
Examined
Size
15.99 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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