Molecular aspects of bacterial nanocellulose biosynthesis

Abstract

Summary Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) produced by aerobic bacteria is a biopolymer with sophisticated technical properties. Although the potential for economically relevant applications is huge, the cost of BNC still limits its application to a few biomedical devices and the edible product Nata de Coco, made available by traditional fermentation methods in Asian countries. Thus, a wider economic relevance of BNC is still dependent on breakthrough developments on the production technology. On the other hand, the development of modified strains able to overproduce BNC with new properties – e.g. porosity, density of fibres crosslinking, mechanical properties, etc. – will certainly allow to overcome investment and cost production issues and enlarge the scope of BNC applications. This review discusses current knowledge about the molecular basis of BNC biosynthesis, its regulations and, finally, presents a perspective on the genetic modification of BNC producers made possible by the new tools available for genetic engineering.

Nanocellulose-Based Patches Loaded with Hyaluronic Acid and Diclofenac towards Aphthous Stomatitis Treatment

“…Among the natural substrates that can be used to engineer membranes or films, bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), viz. an exopolysaccharide produced by some non-pathogenic bacteria, namely the acetic acid bacteria of the genus Komagataeibacter (formerly classified as Gluconacetobacter) [17,18], is gaining increasing attention in the biomedical realm [19][20][21], particularly as a wound-dressing material [19,22,23]. Hence, the current study was inspired not only by the biocompatibility, high water-retention capacity, nanostructured porous network and good in vivo skin compatibility of BNC [20,24], but also by the fact that this exopolysaccharide can be directly produced in the form of membranes or films with customizable size and shape, and can house an array of active molecules (e.g., lidocaine [25,26], diclofenac [27,28], amoxicillin [29] and levofloxacin [30]) and macromolecules (e.g., poly([2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride) [31] and vitamin B-based ionic liquids [32]) that confer new functionalities to the ensuing materials.…”

Topical Drug Delivery Systems Based on Bacterial Nanocellulose: Accelerated Stability Testing

“…Additionally, the advent of the nanoscale forms of this ubiquitous natural polymer, namely, cellulose nanofibrils, cellulose nanocrystals and bacterial nanocellulose (BNC), has considerably widened the applications of cellulose [4][5][6][7]. The first two nanocellulose types are typically produced from vegetable cellulose by mechanical, chemical or enzymatic methodologies (or a combination of two or more of these) [8], whereas BNC is biosynthesized by non-pathogenic bacteria such as those belonging to the Komagataeibacter genus (formerly known as the Gluconacetobacter genus) [9,10].…”

Structural changes of bacterial nanocellulose pellicles induced by genetic modification of Komagataeibacter hansenii ATCC 23769

“…The studies, which involved genetic modifications of the Komagataeibacter strains, focused mainly on the genes affecting efficiency of cellulose biosynthesis (Jacek et al 2019 ). These genetic modifications included the expression of a foreign gene, the gene disruption, or gene overexpression.…”