The Integration of Methylene Blue Decolorization with Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Production Using Enterobacter Strain TS1L

The present study focused on the decolorization of methylene blue (MB) and the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by Enterobacter strain TS1L using PHA medium containing 50 mg/l of MB. The highest PHA production at 56.02 ± 6.26% of dry cell weight (% DCW) was observed after 24 h of cultivation, while the most effective dye decolorization at 92.57 ± 0.03% was observed after 72 h of cultivation at 150 rpm and 35 °C. The characterization of the extracted biopolymer proves the presence of medium-chain-length-co-long-chain-length PHA (mcl-co-lcl PHA) by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). TS1L accumulated mcl-co-lcl-PHA, consisting of 3-hydroxytetradecanoate (3HTD), 3-hydroxyhexadecanoate (3HHD) and 3-hydroxyoctadecanoate (3HOD). 3(HTD-co-HHD-co-HOD) was also observed at 39.49 ± 0.10, 50.36 ± 0.20 and 9.88 ± 0.20 mol%, respectively. This is the first report of mcl-co-lcl PHA production by Enterobacter strain TS1L using PHA-MB medium as a substrate. Graphical Abstract