Sunday, August 10, 2008
P129

Production of antimicrobial Activity, ZINC Solubilization and Bioplastic by Bacteria

Nazia Jamil, Maria Shuja, and Shahida Hasnain. Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, University of the Punjab, New campus, Punjab University, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan

A total of 166 strains were subjected to Gram’s staining, spore staining, Sudan black staining and biochemical characterization. All bacterial strains were screened for antimicrobial activity against each of the 4 groups. Ninety-four strains showed positive results for antimicrobial activity. These strains were screened for heavy metal (ZnO and Zn3(PO4)2.4H2O) solubilization, and about 54 strains solubilized ZnO and 23 strains solubilized Zn3(PO4)2.4H2O while all strains were also analyzed for PHA production by growing the bacteria on Nile blue supplemented PHA detection medium. A total of 127 bacterial strains showed positive results producing fluorescence on PDA media. Bacterial strains (100, 101, 104, and 111) that gave positive results in entire above mentioned screening test were then characterized further for their antimicrobial activity, metal solubilization activity and ability to produce bioplastics. In case of characterization of antimicrobial activity, the analysis of induction time assay showed that strains 101, 104, and 111 showed antimicrobial activity only after 4 hours of incubation while strain 100 showed after 8 hours. The examination of activity of antimicrobial compounds separated by TLC showed that almost all of the separated compounds were able to inhibit the indicator bacterial stains. In case of characterization of zinc solubilization, the broth assay showed a gradual decrease in pH with time while estimation of maximum tolerable concentration (MTC) showed that all four strains were tolerable to the maximum concentration of ZnO. The amplification of PhaC gene fragment in strains 104 and 111 confirmed their ability for bioplastics production.

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