Isolation and Screening of Gram-Positive Polyhydroxyalkanoate producing bacterial strains from Pharmaceutical Industry Effluent

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates are biopolymers produced by various Gram positive and Gram-negative bacteria within their cells. The accumulation of this polymer is induced when the bacteria is facing nutrient limiting conditions. Gram negative bacteria can produce PHA but because of the presence of lipopolysaccharides which are immunogenically reactive, the PHA producing potential has not been used. Keeping this in mind, this study was aimed at the isolation of robust Gram-positive bacterial strains from pharmaceutical industry effluent. Further, the isolated strains were then screened for their ability to produce PHA. We isolated 24 bacterial strains from the effluent and identified 6 as PHA producing strains. The highest PHA producing isolated was characterized using various biochemical tests. The PHA extracted was characterized spectrophotometrically using Law Slepecky method. This PHA-producing isolate may be employed for commercial production of PHA for biomedical application, bioremediation etc.