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

3 Biotech volume 10, Article number: 549 (2020) Cite this article

Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support from Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, to Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla (India), is thankfully acknowledged. The financial assistance from CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), in the form of Senior Research Fellow (SRF) is thankfully acknowledged.

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  1. Department of Biotechnology, Himachal Pradesh University, Summerhill, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, 171011, India

    Rutika Sehgal & Reena Gupta

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  1. Rutika Sehgal
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  2. Reena Gupta
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All the authors have seen and approved the manuscript and its contents, and are aware of the responsibilities connected to the authorship. RS and RG had the idea for the article, RS performed the literature search, data analysis, writing and editing, revisions and RG had critically investigated and revised the work.

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Correspondence to Reena Gupta.

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Sehgal, R., Gupta, R. Polyhydroxyalkanoate and its efficient production: an eco-friendly approach towards development. 3 Biotech 10, 549 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-02550-5

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Keywords

  • Applications
  • Biodegradable plastic
  • Biosynthesis of PHA
  • Economic production
  • Molecular approach