Microbial Polyesters Find Multiple Uses as External Biobeads

Abstract

Some bacteria make and maintain biodegradable beads—biobeads, made of polyesters and capable of incorporating proteins—along their outer surfaces, according to Bernd Rehm, professor and chair of microbiology at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. “Beads with desired protein functions are manufactured in one step inside the bacterial cell and, using our molecular tool box, displayed at the bead surface,” he says. Years of biobeads research are summarized in his review, which appears in the May/June, 2012 Bioengineered Bugs (doi:10.4161/bbug.19567).