1. FATIMA NADEEM - Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
2. KANEEZ FATIMA - Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of Management and Technology, Lahore,
Pakistan.
3. HAFIZ ZESHAN WADOOD - Department of Biology, Lahore Garrison University, Main Campus, Sector C, DHA Phase 6, Lahore,
Pakistan.
4. HINA BATOOL - Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of Management and Technology, Lahore,
Pakistan.
5. RAMNA ZIA - Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of Management and Technology, Lahore,
Pakistan.
6. MUHAMMAD ZAID - Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of Management and Technology, Lahore,
Pakistan.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are produced by many bacteria & can be used as an alternative for the traditional petrochemical based plastics. The biodegradability & biocompatibility are the properties drawing attention towards use of PHA as bioplastics in the recent years. The aim of this study was to produce PHA by the novel bacterial strain isolated from the oil contaminated soil samples, the inexpensive carbon sources used were glucose & molasses. The bacteria were isolated, confirmed for positive PHA accumulation by Nile blue staining & Sudan Black B staining. The novel positive PHA producer Proteus mirabilis was emphasized in this study to check the growth pattern after 30 hours cultivation giving the maximum yield of 13.02% (using glucose as a carbon source) & 25.49% (using molasses as a carbon source) at optimum conditions pH 7.0 and a temperature of 35-37°C. The structure & functional groups of PHA granules extracted from Proteus mirabilis were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Hence, Proteus mirabilis is the bacterial strain identified that can be used for the production of PHA giving lower to moderate quantities of PHA in this study.
Bacteria, FTIR, Molasses, Nile blue Staining, Polyhydroalkanoates, and Proteus Mirabilis.