Revisiting the Single Cell Protein Application of Cupriavidus necator H16 and Recovering Bioplastic Granules Simultaneously
Genre
Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Date
2013-10-24Author
Kunasundari, BalakrishnanMurugaiyah, Vikneswaran
Kaur, Gurjeet
Maurer, Frans HJ
Sudesh, Kumar
Subject
AnimalsBacterial Proteins
Cupriavidus necator
Cytoplasm
Cytoplasmic Granules
Dietary Proteins
Female
Hydroxybutyrates
Male
Models, Animal
Polyesters
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/5361
Metadata
Show full item recordDOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0078528Abstract
Cupriavidus necator H16 (formerly known as Hydrogenomonas eutropha) was famous as a potential single cell protein (SCP) in the 1970s. The drawback however was the undesirably efficient accumulation of non-nutritive polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) storage compound in the cytoplasm of this bacterium. Eventually, competition from soy-based protein resulted in SCP not receiving much attention. Nevertheless, C. necator H16 remained in the limelight as a producer of PHB, which is a material that resembles commodity plastics such as polypropylene. PHB is a 100% biobased and biodegradable polyester. Although tremendous achievements have been attained in the past 3 decades in the efficient production of PHB, this bioplastic is still costly. One of the main problems has been the recovery of PHB from the cell cytoplasm. In this study, we showed for the first time that kilogram quantities of PHB can be easily recovered in the laboratory without the use of any solvents and chemicals, just by using the cells as SCP. In addition, the present study also demonstrated the safety and tolerability of animal model used, Sprague Dawley given lyophilized cells of C. necator H16. The test animals readily produced fecal pellets that were whitish in color, as would be expected of PHB granules. The pellets were determined to contain about 82-97 wt% PHB and possessed molecular mass of around 930 kg/mol. The PHB granules recovered biologically possessed similar molecular mass compared to chloroform extracted PHB [950 kg/mol]. This method now allows the production and purification of substantial quantities of PHB for various experimental trials. The method reported here is easy, does not require expensive instrumentation, scalable and does not involve extensive use of solvents and strong chemicals.Citation to related work
Public Library of Science (PLoS)Has part
PLOS ONEADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.eduae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/5343