Development of a rapid method to isolate polyhydroxyalkanoates from bacteria for screening studies

We describe a novel method of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) extraction using dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) for use in screening studies. Compared to conventional chloroform extraction, the DMSO method was shown to release comparable quantities of PHA from Cupriavidus necator cells, with comparable properties as determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry.