Optimization of medium composition for 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid production by Pseudomonas mendocina–biodegraded polyhydroxybutyrate

We optimized the culture medium for 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid production by Pseudomonas mendocina DS-04-T–biodegraded polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) using the Plackett–Burman design, steepest ascent method, and Box–Behnken design. The optimized concentrations of the constituents of the culture medium were as follows: PHB (7.57 g/L), NH4Cl (5.0 g/L), KH2PO4 (2.64 g/L), Na2HPO4·12H2O (12 g/L), MgSO4·7H2O (0.5 g/L), and CaCl2·2H2O (5 mg/L). The yield of 3-hydroxycarboxylic acid obtained using the optimized culture medium was 56.8 ± 1.64%, which was 2.5-fold higher than that obtained when the unoptimized culture medium was used.