CHED 836 |
| Nytarsha Brown and Jian Yu. |
| Samples were collected from Oahu beaches and screened for PHA production. Microbial strains were metabolically characterized by profiling nutrient uptake and production rates of PHA and chemically characterized to find the base monomer that makes up the hydroxyalkanoate polymer. The optimum media were established for maximum growth and PHA production for isolated bacteria. HPLC and FT-IR analysis of metabolites was used to analyze cells with a very high probability of producing PHAs. Results showed that isolated strains produced polymers that were chemically similar to PHA; however, none of the strains actually produced PHA. It is theorized that PHA might not exist in high enough amounts in the marine environments on the island of Oahu to aid in the mass production of biodegradable plastics. However, perhaps the polymer that is produced can be characterized and found to have a similar function. |
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Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Environmental Chemistry
2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Monday, 27 March 2006 Georgia World Congress Center -- Ex. Hall B4, Poster
Division of Chemical Education |