Bioprospecting of Polyhydroxy butyrate (PHB) from Bacillus thuringiensis KUMBNGBT-41 by using Agro-industrial wastes

The diverse group of chemicals used in making of plastic is known to be highly toxic and poses a serious threat to the biosphere. These substances besides hitting hard to ecosystem cause an array of problems like birth defects, cancer, damage of nervous and immune systems. The present research work was aimed to isolate and characterize PHB producing bacteria from landfill soil sample collected from Sanehally, Chitradurga district and qualitatively screened by using viable staining techniques. Quantitative estimation was examined by using solvent extraction method. The PHB producing bacteria were characterized based on morphological, biochemical and molecular identification and confirmed as Bacillus thuringiensis strain KUMBNGBT-41 (Accession No. MW040075). Growth parameters were optimized for biomass production using various conditions such as media-nutrient broth, incubation time-72hrs, temperature-37˚C, pH-7.0, carbon source-glucose, nitrogen source-ammonium chloride and carbon to nitrogen ratio as 4:1. The low-cost production media was used for PHB production by cheaper substrates in submerged fermentation. PHB was analysed and quantified by using UV-Visible spectrophotometer at 200-600nm.