CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOPOLYMER PRODUCING STREPTOMYCES PARVULUS, OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS AND MASS PRODUCTION USING LESS EXPENSIVE SUBSTRATES

PHB is attracting much attention as substitute for non-degradable petro-chemically derived plastics because of their similar material properties to conventional plastics and complete biodegradability under natural environment upon disposal. Out of ten actinomycetes isolates obtained from different soil samples, the PHB accumulating isolate was identified by Rapid screening method and based on the morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular studies, the isolate was identified as Streptomyces parvulus RL01 (GenBank Accession no: JX457345. The influence of incubation time, carbon source and nitrogen source on the PHB accumulation was studied. PHB accumulation was maximum in 48 h of incubated in a medium with 1.5% lactose as carbon source and 1% casein as nitrogen source yielded maximum PHB accumulation of 1.7g/L and 2.9g/L respectively. For the production of PHB various inexpensive substrates such as Casava podwer, Coconut oil cake Ground nut oil, Jack fruit seed powder, Potato starch, Rice bran and Wheat bran were used and it was found that PHB production was maximum in whey (2.8 g/L) and minimum in other substrates (1 g/L, 0.1 g/L, 0.2 g/L, 1 g/L, 1 g/L, 0.3 g/L and 0.3 g/L).