When Escherichia coli W, which is able to utilize sucrose as a carbon source, harboring a high-copy-number plasmid (pSYL105) containing the Alcaligenes eultrophus polyhydroxyalkanoate(PHA) biosynthetic genes was cultured in a defined medium, the final poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid), PHB, concentration obtained was as low as $0.21g/ell$. Ten different complex nitrogen sources were, therefore, examined for their ability to enhance PHB synthesis when supplemented to a defined medium. Addition of tryptone, casamino acids, casein hydrolysate, or soy bean hydrolysate enhanced PHB synthesis most significantly, resulting in more than 10 times higher PHB concentration compared with that obtained in a defined medium. Furthermore, PHB yield on sucrose was also increased by more than a 10 fold by the addition of these complex nitrogen sources, which suggested that PHB might be efficiently produced by the recombinant E. coli W(pSYL105) using sucrose as a carbon source.