A heterologous metabolism of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biosynthesis and degradation was established in Escherichia coli by introducing the Ralstonia eutropha PHA biosynthesis operon along with the R. eutropha intracellular PHA depolymerase gene. By with this metabolically engineered E. coli, enantiomerically pure (R)-3-hydroxybutyric acid (R3HB) could be efficiently produced from glucose. By employing a two-plasmid system, developed as the PHA biosynthesis operon on a medium-copy-number plasmid and the PHA depolymerase gene on a high-copy-number plasmid, R3HB could be produced with a yield of 49.5% (85.6% of the maximum theoretical yield) from glucose. By integration of the PHA biosynthesis genes into the chromosome of E. coli and by introducing a plasmid containing the PHA depolymerase gene, R3HB could be produced without plasmid instability in the absence of antibiotics. This strategy can be used for the production of various enantiomerically pure (R)-hydroxycarboxylic acids from renewable resources.Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a group of completely biodegradable polyesters that are synthesized and accumulated by various bacteria (1,5,9,27). More than 140 kinds of carboxylic acids hydroxylated at the 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-position, all in the (R)-configuration if they possess a chiral center on the position of hydroxyl group, can be incorporated into PHAs by employing different bacteria under various culture conditions (5, 9, 28). Therefore, it was reasoned that various enantiomerically pure (R)-(Ϫ)-hydroxycarboxylic acids (RHAs) might be conveniently prepared by depolymerizing biosynthesized PHAs. These RHAs contain two functional groups that are convenient to modify for the synthesis of various chiral compounds, especially fine chemicals such as antibiotics, vitamins, perfumes, and pheromones (3, 9, 21, 23). For example, (R)-(Ϫ)-3-hydroxybutyric acid (R3HB) is an important precursor of 4-acetoxyazetidinone, which in turn is used to make carbapenem antibiotics, which have close to a billion-dollar market. Poly-(R)-(Ϫ)-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is the most ubiquitous member of the PHAs. Methods for producing R3HB by chemical digestion of PHB have been reported (13,23,24). In these methods, however, organic solvents were used in large amounts, and the production efficiency was rather low due to complicated processes.The metabolism for the synthesis and degradation of PHB plays an important role in many bacteria for the reservation and reutilization of excess carbon and energy sources and reducing power (1). The metabolic pathway for the synthesis and degradation of PHB in Ralstonia eutropha was already proposed (1,5,11,18,22,25). PHB is synthesized from acetylcoenzyme A (CoA) by three sequential enzymatic reactions catalyzed by -ketothiolase, acetoacetyl-CoA reductase, and PHA synthase (18,22,25). When the conditions are met, PHB is depolymerized to R3HB by intracellular PHA depolymerase and oligomer hydrolase (1,5,11). Then the R3HB dehydrogenase converts R3HB to acetoacetate, which is further metabolized in th...