Screening, identification and characterisation of Polyhydroxybutyrate producing bacteria from garden soil

Plastic pollution need to be resolved as it affects air, water, land. The favourable alternative for plastics would be Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from bacterial origin, which are biodegradable and biocompatible biopolymers. Focus on the PHB producing bacteria is done by collecting garden soil sample. Five colonies of Sudan black blue positive isolates were chosen, extracted, and produced. One of the strains (SM1) - a potent producer as confirmed by crotonic acid assay, was further subjected to large scale production. The PHB thus produced was analysed using Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) to confirm the presence of functional groups. X-Ray crystallography revealed that it is of crystalline nature and are pictured by Scanning electron microscopy photography. DNA was isolated from the strain SM1, and the gene for 16S rRNA has been sequenced and submitted in GENBANK, (Accession No: MZ363886). The organism was found to be Bacillus cereus as predicted by 16S rRNA and NCBI BLAST. A phylogenetic tree was constructed using MEGA software. Bioplastic preparation was done under laboratory scale and the produced bioplastic was successfully degraded using Pseudomonas species . The prepared bioplastic from bacteria was biodegradable and eco-friendly.