Volume 3 / Issue 2 - 2010

Production of polyesters by Pseudomonas alcaligenes

* S. Ahmad and **+ Fapohunda S. O.

*Department of Microbiology, G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India ** Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Nigeria

2010

ABSTRACT

Microbial polyesters (polyB-hydroxyalkanoates) are biodegradable thermoplastics accumulated by procaryotic microorganisms. An example is polyhydroxybutyrate, (PHB).. Poly B- hydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is an intracellular storage material synthesized during imbalance growth conditions. The PHA accumulation profile of the following bacterial strains were studied.: Pseudomonas alcaligenes, P. putida Ochrobacterium spp and Rhodococcus equi.. All of them synthesized and accumulated PHB during unbalanced growth conditions. However, P alcaligenes did synthesise the polyester under balanced growth. This represents a preliminary report.