Rendered-protein hydrolysates for microbial synthesis of cyanophycin biopolymer

Cyanophycin is a poly(arginyl-aspartate) biopolymer produced and stored intracellularly by bacteria. Cyanophycin has been proposed as a renewable replacement for petrochemical-based industrial products. An abundant source of amino acids and nitrogen such as in the form of protein hydrolysates is needed for the biosynthesis of cyanophycin. Rendered proteins are largely used as a feed supplement in animal husbandry and aquaculture. New uses would expand the market size of this class of protein coproducts. We prepared and thoroughly characterized the hydrolysates of meat and bone meal, and proceeded to demonstrate for the first time that these hydrolysates could be used in the fermentative production of cyanophycin. Using the enzyme-hydrolyzed meat and bone meal preparation, we obtained crude cyanophycin product at 33-35% level of that produced using the reference casamino acids in both shake-flask and 10-L bioreactor fermentation studies. Polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis of the cyanophycin under denaturing conditions showed the molecular weight of the isolated polyamide at 24kDa. Our results open a new avenue for the utilization of rendered protein coproducts to produce the cyanophycin biopolymer.