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Revisiting the Single Cell Protein Application of Cupriavidus necator H16 and Recovering Bioplastic Granules Simultaneously

Kunasundari, Balakrishnan ; Murugaiyah, Vikneswaran ; Kaur, Gurjeet ; Maurer, Frans LU and Sudesh, Kumar (2013) In PLoS ONE 8(10).
Abstract
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... (More)
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. (Less)
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; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
PLoS ONE
volume
8
issue
10
article number
e78528
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • wos:000326152300066
  • scopus:84886301147
  • pmid:24205250
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0078528
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Polymer and Materials Chemistry (LTH) (011001041)
id
47e80a37-3648-4291-81e0-3e269af58cb3 (old id 4212748)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:48:33
date last changed
2022-02-26 23:09:58
@article{47e80a37-3648-4291-81e0-3e269af58cb3,
  abstract     = {{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.}},
  author       = {{Kunasundari, Balakrishnan and Murugaiyah, Vikneswaran and Kaur, Gurjeet and Maurer, Frans and Sudesh, Kumar}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{Revisiting the Single Cell Protein Application of Cupriavidus necator H16 and Recovering Bioplastic Granules Simultaneously}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078528}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0078528}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}