STUDIES ON BIOSYNTHESIS OF POLYHYDOXYALKANOATES (PHA) FOR BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Performed researches during recent years have encouraged PHA experiments on their use in development of biological materials (biodegradable) in medical applications. The purpose of this research was to study the capacity of some Pseudomonas strains to synthesize medium chain length PHA (mcl-PHA) containing monomers C6-C14 from different substrates and to characterize the obtained biopolymers with respect to their monomer compositions. From three strains cultivated on media containing structural related, non-related or both C sources, a strain of Pseudomonas putida (ICCF 391) showed the highest bio productive capacity when grown on glucose and octanoate as C sources and a strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens (ICCF 392) had the best bio productivity when cultivated on citrate and octanoate as C sources. The GC-FID characterization of the biopolymers, performed after a mild methanolysis, disclosed the prevalence of the monomer induced by the structural related compound used as an additional carbon sources.