Post-transcriptional control in the regulation of polyhydroxyalkanoates synthesis

Abstract

Funding Information: Funding: Work at ITQB NOVA was financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie ID: 867437, and projects UIDB/04612/2020 and UIDP/04612/2020 (Molecular, Structural and Cellular Microbiology), funded by FEDER through COMPETE 2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) and by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; Work at NOVA School of Science and Technology FCT I.P., was funded by national funds from FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences—UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy-i4HB. Funding Information: Work at ITQB NOVA was financially supported by the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie ID: 867437, and projects UIDB/04612/2020 and UIDP/04612/2020 (Molecular, Structural and Cellular Microbiology), funded by FEDER through COMPETE 2020?Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionaliza??o (POCI) and by national funds through FCT?Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia; Work at NOVA School of Science and Technology FCT I.P., was funded by national funds from FCT?Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences?UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy-i4HB. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.The large production of non-degradable petrol-based plastics has become a major global issue due to its environmental pollution. Biopolymers produced by microorganisms such as polyhy-droxyalkanoates (PHAs) are gaining potential as a sustainable alternative, but the high cost associated with their industrial production has been a limiting factor. Post-transcriptional regulation is a key step to control gene expression in changing environments and has been reported to play a major role in numerous cellular processes. However, limited reports are available concerning the regulation of PHA accumulation in bacteria, and many essential regulatory factors still need to be identified. Here, we review studies where the synthesis of PHA has been reported to be regulated at the post-transcriptional level, and we analyze the RNA-mediated networks involved. Finally, we discuss the forthcoming research on riboregulation, synthetic, and metabolic engineering which could lead to improved strategies for PHAs synthesis in industrial production, thereby reducing the costs currently associated with this procedure.publishersversionpublishe