Trends in PHA Production by Microbially Diverse and Functionally Distinct Communities.

Along with the wide applications of conventional plastics, they have a large number of disadvantages like their non-biodegradable nature, dependency on fossil fuels and the release of large amounts of toxic materials in the environment. Therefore, to resolve these problems, a number of bioplastics are studied, out of which polyhydroxyalkanoates are considered as the best alternatives. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are produced by microorganisms as intracellular granules during stressful conditions. Though a wide range of organisms can naturally produce PHAs, only a few of them can be used for commercial production. Therefore, more diverse organisms that accumulate a considerable amount of PHAs and also reduce the production cost need to be exploited. Transgenic plants, recombinant bacteria, algae and extremophiles are some diverse organisms that produce a high amount of PHAs at a low cost. So, if potential organisms are used for PHA production, bioplastics will be able to completely replace petroleum-based polymers. Therefore, our review mainly focuses on production of PHAs using potential organisms so that amount of PHAs produced is high and cost-effective which would further help in the commercialization of PHAs.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate and its efficient production: an eco-friendly approach towards development.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is the most promising solution to major ecological problem of plastic accumulation. The biodegradable and biocompatible properties of PHA make it highly demanding in the biomedical and agricultural field. The limited market share of PHA industries despite having tremendous demand as concerned with environment has led to knock the doors of scientific research for finding ways for the economic production of PHA. Therefore, new methods of its production have been applied such as using a wide variety of feedstock like organic wastes and modifying PHA synthesizing enzyme at molecular level. Modifying metabolic pathways for PHA production using new emerging techniques like CRISPR/Cas9 technology has simplified the process spending less amount of time. Using green solvents under pressurized conditions, ionic liquids, supercritical solvents, hypotonic cell disintegration for release of PHA granules, switchable anionic surfactants and even digestion of non-PHA biomass by animals are some novel strategies for PHA recovery which play an important role in sustainable production of PHA. Hence, this review provides a view of recent applications, significance of PHA and new methods used for its production which are missing in the available literature.