Production of Short Chain Length Polyhydroxyalkanoates by Bacillus megaterium PHB29 from Starch Feed Stock

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are polyoxoesters of R-hydroxyalkanoic acid monomers accumulated in bacterial cytoplasm as granules when carbon sources are available in excess and other nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are limited in their surroundings (Dawes and Senior, 1972; Lee et al., 1999). They act as carbonenergy reserves and also as electron sinks, which enhance the fitness of the bacteria and help in maintaining the redox balance (López et al., 1995; Madison and Huisman 1999; Ruiz et al., 2006). These materials are biocompatible, non-toxic and considered as alternatives for conventional petroleum derived plastics (Chen, 2010). Depending on the bacterial strains, growth substrates and incubation conditions, the monomer composition of the accumulated polymer may vary and as a result, the properties of PHAs range from thermoplastics to elastomers (Braunegg et International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 5 Number 7 (2016) pp. 816-823 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com