Diversity of Halophilic Archaea from Salt Pans of Saurashtra Region and Its Application in PHA Production

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) can be a key solution for pollution problems caused by plastics derived from petrochemical sources. Among the members of Archaea, Halophilic archaea are a huge untapped resource of potential for such industrially important metabolic products with interesting environmental applications. The prime aim of this study was to screen the potent archaeal strain from Salt pans of Saurashtra region, for the accumulation of polyhydroxy butyrate (PHB). Because of their relatively low species diversity, it is possible to study the phylogenetic and metabolic diversity that is present in the community. Hence In the present study, both culturable and culture-independent efforts have been made to study the community of indigenous halophilic archaea. The Shannon s and Simpson s index of Mithapur saltpan calculated by metagenomic study is 5.94 and 0.96 respectively. The compiled results of culturable diversity revealed the site Mithapur is more diverse representing higher richness and evenness. Among thirty-three isolates, extremely halophilic archaeon Haloferax alexandrines strain wsp1 isolated from Mithapur, Gujarat showed a maximum PHA accumulation of 4.37% ±0.17 of cell dry weight (CDW) at optimized conditions. The FT-IR,1H NMR and 13C NMR analysis revealed that the polymer was a co-polymer of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxy valerate) [P(HB-co-HV)]. newline