Biolytic extraction of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) from Ti3 using the lytic enzyme of Tia1.

The applicability of sp. cell lytic enzymes for devising a simple and competent biological polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) recovery approach from cells was investigated. strain Ti3 produced 50% (w/w) PHA using glucose as carbon source. The intracellular PHA was recovered employing a non-PHA accumulating actinomycetes (Tia1) identified as , having potent lytic activity against living and heat inactivated . Interestingly, maximum biomass (2.53 ± 0.6 g/L by 24 h) of the lytic actinomycete was obtained in PHA production medium itself thus circumventing the prior actinomycete acclimatization just by co-inoculation with as an inducer. Maximum lytic activity was observed at pH 6.0, 40 °C, 220 mg of biomass and 33.3 mL of concentrated culture filtrate in a 100 mL reaction mixture. Preliminary biochemical investigations confirmed the proteolytic and caseinolytic nature of the lytic enzyme. PHA yield of 0.55 g/g by co-inoculation extraction approach was comparable with the conventional sodium hypochlorite based extraction method. Interestingly, also demonstrated a broad spectrum lytic potential against varied Gram-negative and Gram-positive PHA producers highlighting the extensive applicability of this biolytic PHA recovery approach. The lytic enzyme retained almost 100% relative activity on storage at -20 °C upto two months. H Nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of the extracted polymer confirmed it as a homopolymer composed of 3-hydroxybutyrate monomeric units. This is the first report on sp. based biological and eco-friendly, intracellular PHA recovery from spp.