Agro-industrial byproducts as alternate cost-effective medium components for production of polyhydroxybutyrate

631-642Polyhydroxybutyrates (PHBs), biodegradable plastics, having properties similar to conventional plastics, exhibit a high potential for replacing petrochemical-based non-degradable plastics. But a major obstacle in their large-scale commercial production is high production cost, one of the key factors responsible for which is the expensive carbon sources that are currently being used in their manufacturing process. The present work was aimed to study PHB production using cost-effective substrates as carbon sources in the production medium. Inexpensive agro-industrial byproducts (molasses, cheese whey, wheat bran and banana peel, used in different concentrations) were explored for their potential to substitute the conventional costly substrates. Compared to glucose, all the four alternate carbon sources showed an enhancement in PHB production. The mean percent increase in PHB production was in the range of 3.81% to 7.23%. However, some of the bacterial isolates showed an enhancement as high as 23.32% and 19.65%. Highest mean PHB yield was observed in molasses (135.18 mg/mL), followed by cheese-whey (133.79 mg/mL), banana peel, and least in wheat bran based production medium. On dry weight basis, PHB accumulation in cells was observed to be 64.32% and 64.29% of the total dry cell weight with molasses and cheese whey, respectively, as carbon sources. FTIR spectra of extracted PHB were found to be comparable to the spectra of standard PHB, thus, confirming the chemical nature of the extracted polymer

Agro-industrial byproducts as alternate cost-effective medium components for production of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate

Polyhydroxybutyrates (PHBs), biodegradable plastics, having properties similar to conventional plastics, exhibit a high potential for replacing petrochemical-based non-degradable plastics. But a major obstacle in their large-scale commercial production is high production cost, one of the key factors responsible for which is the expensive carbon sources that are currently being used in their manufacturing process. The present work was aimed to study PHB production using cost-effective substrates as carbon sources in the production medium. Inexpensive agro-industrial byproducts (molasses, cheese whey, wheat bran and banana peel, used in different concentrations) were explored for their potential to substitute the conventional costly substrates. Compared to glucose, all the four alternate carbon sources showed an enhancement in PHB production. The mean percent increase in PHB production was in the range of 3.81% to 7.23%. However, some of the bacterial isolates showed an enhancement as high as 23.32% and 19.65%. Highest mean PHB yield was observed in molasses (135.18 mg/mL), followed by cheese-whey (133.79 mg/mL), banana peel, and least in wheat bran based production medium. On dry weight basis, PHB accumulation in cells was observed to be 64.32% and 64.29% of the total dry cell weight with molasses and cheese whey, respectively, as carbon sources. FTIR spectra of extracted PHB were found to be comparable to the spectra of standard PHB, thus, confirming the chemical nature of the extracted polymer

Quantification and purification of C-phycocyanin from cyanobacterial strains Anabaena and Phormidium

625-629The cyanobacteria Anabaena and Phormidium are potential source of phycobiliproteins and C phycocyanin (C-pc). Here, we carried out extraction and purification of phycocyanin (PC) from the above selected cyanobacterial isolates using one-step anion exchange chromatography. Crude C-phycocyanins were extracted and concentrated by ammonium sulfate fractionation at saturation of 35%, then purified on a DEAE-sepharose with Fast Flow chromatography column having continuous pH gradient elution from pH 5.1 to 3.76. The process resulted in recovery of high purity C-pc from above cyanobacteria. The purity ratios (A620/A280) of phycocyanin reached 3.34 for Phormidium and 3.1 for Anabaena, respectively. The purity was further demonstrated and confirmed through fluorescence emission spectroscopy. The total recovery yield of pure C-pc was 14% after completion of the process, and the recovered pigment remained stable over a pH range of 4-9. This purification method for recovery of high purity pigment was fairly efficient compared to the existing methods. . As phycocyanin has higher antioxidant activity and hence, the above cyanobacterial strains Anabaena and Phormidium with considerable amount of C-pc, may serve to be a potential source as food supplement as well as for pharmaceuticals industries

Similarity analysis of <i>Spirulina/Arthrospira</i> strains on the basis of phycocyanin operon locus (cpcB-IGS-cpcA) and 16S rRNA gene sequences

84-90Spirulina/Arthrospira is a species of cyanobacteria used in health foods, animal feed, food additives and fine chemicals. The present study conducted a comparison of the 16S rRNA and cpcBA-intergenic spacer (cpcBA-IGS) gene sequences in Spirulina/Arthrospira strains from culture collection of CCUBGA, IARI, New Delhi. All the strains of Spirulina used in this study had shown nearly 99% similarity amongst them. About fifty sequences (cpcBA-IGS) of Spirulin a strains taken from NCBI with ten from the present strains of Spirulina, a neighbour-joing (NJ) tree was constructed with the help of MEGA 5.0. The tree showed 99% similarity. All the sequences were put to Multiple Sequence Alignment with the help of T-Coffee (version 7.38) and BioEdit (version 7.38) software. Similarity studies undertaken based upon 16S rRNA and cpcBA-IGS genes sequence analysis indicated similarity coefficient of 0.84. S. platensis and Arthrospira sp. showed 100 percent similarity. Therefore, the current study supports some previous conclusions based on 16S rRNA gene and cpcBA-IGS sequences, which found that Arthrospira taxa are monophyletic. However, compared to 16S rRNA sequences, cpcBA-IGS sequences might be better suited to resolve close relationships and interspecies variability