In order to attain high cell density and low cost production of poly(beta-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), the Vitreoscilla globin gene (vgb) was introduced into a novel recombinant strain, Escherichia coli VG1 (pTU14). Experiments showed that the expression of vgb was under the regulation of dissolved oxygen (DO) in broth and the introduction of vgb in VG1 (pTU14) induced the parent promotion effect on cell growth and PHB accumulation, especially under low DO conditions. Further experiments indicated that the introduction of vgb in VG1 (pTU14) not only decreased the critical oxygen concentration, but also affected the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient of the recombinant strain.