Exploring the marine bacterium Priestia aryabhattai BDS15 for polyhydroxyalkanoate production

When plastic was invented, it was a boon to mankind because of its versatility in everyday life. But now globally, several governments, notably the government of India, have restricted its use (under The Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021) due to overuse, leading to environmental pollution. This study investigated the ability of marine bacteria to produce polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), a biopolymer that can replace conventional plastics. A total of 13 marine bacteria were isolated from a region of the Gujarat coastline and screened for their potential to produce PHA. The bacterial isolate BDS15 was selected for PHA production. The metabolic diversity of the isolate was studied using the Biolog^®GEN III MicroPlate^™ and identified as Priestia aryabhattai BDS15 by full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. It yields 0.9 g/L of crude PHA in a Minimal Salt Medium (MSM) medium containing 5% NaCl. Extracted PHA was quantified using the crotonic acid assay. The characterization of the extracted PHA was done using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹H NMR) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA).