Study on Polyhydroxyalkanoates Production using Rhizospheric Soil Bacterial Isolates of Sweet Potato

In this investigation, a total of twenty-five bacterial strains were isolated from rhizospheric soil region of sweet potato during pre-harvesting period. Presence of PHB granules was confirmed by Sudan Black B staining in four strains out of all isolates. The results obtained from Gram staining, biochemical characterization and enzymatic analysis; all four strains were Gram positive rod and belong to genus Bacillus with negative trend in caseinase activity. Highest PHA production (64.53%) was observed in Bacillus P3 under optimized condition such as temperature 37 0 C and pH 7.Then the potential PHA producing isolates were tested for multiple resistances to antibiotics showing an advantageous feature for the biotechnological production of PHAs. Further characterization of PHA was carried out by FTIR. Thus the potential bacterial isolates can be exploited for production of biopolymer.