Spectroscopic characterization of genetically modified flax fibres enhanced with poly-3-hydroxybutyric acid

Genetically modified flax fibres, derived from transgenic flax with expression of three bacterial genes necessary for synthesis of poly-3-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB), have been analysed. These transgenic flaxes, enhanced with different amount of the PHB, have been studied by FT-IR spectroscopy. The integral intensities of the IR bands have been used for estimation of the chemical content of the normal and transgenic flaxes as well as the differences between the natural and genetically modified flax fibres. The spectroscopic data were compared to those obtained from chemical analysis of flax fibres.