Microbial production of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate by marine microbes isolated from various marine environments

Considering the industrial interest of Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), bacteria isolated from the various marine arenas were screened for their ability to accumulate PHB and were compared with Wausteria eutropha (MTCC-1285). Among the 42 isolates, four strains showed the accumulation of PHB. The maximum PHB producer Vibrio sp. (MK4) was further studied in detail. To increase the productivity, steps were taken to evaluate the effect of carbon sources, nitrogen sources, pH and sodium chloride concentration on PHB productivity by MK4. The optimized conditions were further used for the batch fermentation over a period of 72 h. Significantly higher maximum biomass of 9.1 g/L with a PHB content of 4.223 g/L was obtained in a laboratory-scale bioreactor at 64 h, thus giving a productivity of 0.065 g/L/h. The extracted polymer was compared with the authentic PHB and was confirmed to be PHB using FTIR analysis and 1H NMR analysis. Thus, the study highlights the potential of the use of Vibrio sp (MK4) in the commercial production of PHB.