Bacterial polyesters containing branched poly(beta-hydroxyalkanoate) units.

Pseudomonas oleovorans was grown on mixtures of methyloctanoates with n-octanoate. Polymers were also obtained from organisms grown on pure 7-methyloctanoate, but not from pure 5- or 6-methyloctanoate. The polyesters obtained from 7-methyloctanoate and from its mixtures with n-octanoate contained units with the methyl branches in the pendant group, as did the copolymers from the mixtures of 5- and 6-methyloctanoate with n-octanoate. The methyl branched repeating units contained two diastereomers, and the 13C-n.m.r. spectra of these polymers indicated that the 5-methyloctanoate units had a higher content of one of the two isomers, but not in the 6-methyloctanoate units. The weight average molecular weights of the copolyesters produced were in the range of 220,000 to 410,000, with Mw/Mn ratios of 1.7 to 1.9.