Microbial production and characterization of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate by Neptunomonas antarctica

Considering the industrial interest of biodegradable polymer poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), the marine bacteria Neptunomonas antarctica was studied for its ability to accumulate PHB. The extracted polymer was confirmed to be PHB by nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. In shake flask cultures using na...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ
Main Authors: Xiao-Jie Liu, Jie Zhang, Peng-Hui Hong, Zheng-Jun Li
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Subjects:
R
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2291
https://doaj.org/article/0bee1f5daac84103bd4e3ef186a943f4
Description
Summary:Considering the industrial interest of biodegradable polymer poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), the marine bacteria Neptunomonas antarctica was studied for its ability to accumulate PHB. The extracted polymer was confirmed to be PHB by nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. In shake flask cultures using natural seawater as medium components, PHB was produced up to 2.12 g/L with a yield of 0.18 g PHB/g fructose. In the presence of artificial seawater, the PHB titer and yield reached 2.13 g/L and 0.13 g PHB/g fructose, respectively. The accumulated polymer gradually decreased when fructose was exhausted, indicating that intracellular PHB was degraded by N. antarctica. The weight-average and number-average molecular weights of PHB produced within natural seawater were 2.4 × 105 g/mol and 1.7 × 105 g/mol, respectively. Our results highlight the potential of N. antarctica for PHB production with seawater as a nutrient source.