Enhanced bacterial cellulose production by indigenous isolates: Insights from mutagenesis and evolutionary techniques

Bacterial cellulose, with mechanical strength, high water absorption, and crystallinity, is used in eco-friendly packaging, wound dressings, and drug delivery systems. Despite its potential, industrial-scale production is limited by inefficiency and high costs, requiring high-yield strains and optimized growth conditions. This study found that indigenous isolates produce superior bacterial cellulose compared to standard strains. Using UV mutagenesis and Adaptive Laboratory Evolution (ALE), production efficiency increased over sixfold. Strains isolated from vinegar were screened and genetically tested, revealing a strain closely related (99.85 %) to Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans (NCBI code AJ007698). This strain, designated PP177480, achieved a productivity of 9.3 g/L, surpassing the standard strain's (K. xylinus PTCC 1734) yield of 1.31 g/L. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed larger nanopore sizes in the cellulose structure of the selected strain. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed that bacterial cellulose from both strains is similar to cellulose I, with crystallite sizes of 25 nm for the selected strain and 12.9 nm for the standard strain. Crystallinity percentages were 62.45 % for the selected strain and 72.52 % for the standard strain, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed only a slight increase in the amorphous region of the selected strain.