Metabolix Completes Field Trial of Bioplastic-Producing Tobacco Crop

Reuters
Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:05pm EDT

Demonstrates expertise in expression of PHA in non-food crops

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(Business Wire)-- Metabolix, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLX), a bioscience company focused on developing sustainable solutions for plastics, chemicals and energy, announced today that it has completed a field trial of tobacco, genetically engineered to express polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biobased polymers. Metabolix obtained the necessary permits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to perform an open air field trial in March of 2009 and field trial experiments were completed in early October.

The trial was performed on 0.8 acres of land and provided valuable data and information relating to polymer production, with the best plants producing 3-5% PHA. This furthers development
of Metabolix crop technologies for the co-production of biobased plastics in non-food bioenergy crops.

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