Abstract
The production of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) under varying environmental conditions (pH, temperature and carbon sources) was examined in the cyanobacterium Scytonema geitleri Bharadwaja isolated from the roof-top of a building. The S. geitleri produced PHB and the production of PHB was linear with the growth of cyanobacterium. The maximum PHB production (7.12% of dry cell weight) was recorded when the cells of S. geitleri were at their stationary growth phase. The production of PHB was optimum at pH 8.5 and 30 °C, and acetate (30 mM) was the preferred carbon source.
Highlights
Synthetic polymers are potent environmental toxic pollutants which are non-degradable and have accumulated in the environment
The cyanobacterium S. geitleri Bharadwaja was isolated from the roof-top of the Botany Department, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
To ascertain whether the synthesized product was PHB was recovered from the cyanobacterium
Summary
Synthetic polymers are potent environmental toxic pollutants which are non-degradable and have accumulated in the environment. The efforts of scientists have been focused on alternative environmental biopolymers. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), including polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), have been recently recognized polyesters due to their features as biodegradable thermoplastics [1]. The PHB is mostly produced by prokaryotes and accumulated intracellularly as an energy and carbon storage material [2]. Pure PHB is of biological origin and is thermoplastic, stereo-specific and biodegradable [3,4]. It has wide applications in environmental, agricultural and biomedical fields [5,6,7]
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