Marine bacteria associated with the green seaweed Ulva sp. for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates

Abstract

The biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers from certain marine microbes, associated with green macroalgae Ulva sp., has attracted significant attention. The Ulva sp. is abundant biomass in numerous locations around the world and could be easily cultivated by marine farming. The variety of sugars found in Ulva sp. homogenate could be used as a carbon source for microbial growth and PHA production. In this work, we isolated and explored a series of bacterial strains that function as potential producers of P(3HB), utilizing a range of common sugars found in Ulva sp. Analysis of 16S rDNA gene-sequence revealed that the PHA-producing bacteria were phylogenetically related to species of the genus Cobetia, Bacillus, Pseudoaltermonas, and Sulfitobacter. The highest-yield of P(3HB) was observed in the case of new Cobetia strain, C. amphilecti, with up to 61% (w/w) in the presence of mannitol and 12% (w/w) on Ulva sp. acid hydrolysate as a substrate.

Microbial communities on eelgrass (Zostera marina) thriving in Tokyo Bay and the possible source of leaf-attached microbes

“…The lignin is a major component of vascular plant tissue (Pollegioni et al, 2015), it also found in seagrasses (Opsahl and Benner, 1993;Klap et al, 2000;Pfeifer and Classen, 2020). The genus Cobetia has been isolated from green macroalgae Ulva sp., with some other species assimilating various carbon sources to produce polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA; Gnaim et al, 2021). Previous studies of the eelgrass microbiome have focused on randomly selected leaf blades, regardless of leaf age (Ettinger et al, 2017;Fahimipour et al, 2017;Iqbal et al, 2021).…”

In silico identification of bacterial seaweed-degrading bioplastic producers

“…and Laminaria japonica obtained after acid treatments have also been considered for the production of PHAs [38,39]. For the green seaweed Ulva sp., several treatments to release monosaccharides for subsequent production of PHAs have been considered, including acid hydrolysis [40,41], subcritical water extraction [42], and hydrothermal extraction of cellulose and starch [34]. Most of these pretreatments are challenging to achieve at large scale, are not environmentally friendly and create additional costs for an already non-cost-competitive process.…”

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Coastal Viral Community Structure and Potential Biogeochemical Roles Affected by an Ulva prolifera Green Tide

“…It is speculated that the eutrophic environment during the bloom was not suitable for the growth of the oligotrophic SAR11 clade ( 35 ). Some phages whose potential hosts were associated with degradation of algae-derived organic matter were found, such as the Sulfitobacter ( 36 ), Cycloclasticus ( 37 ), Vibrio ( 10 , 38 , 39 ), Bacilli ( 40 ), and Roseobacter ( 41 ) ( Tables S3 and S4 ). These phages had similar temporal distribution patterns to their hosts, or there was a time delay between the peak in relative abundances of the virus OTUs and the putative host OTUs.…”