PHB Produced by Bacteria Present in the Argan Field Soil: A New Perspective for the Synthesis of the Bio-Based Polymer

Bio-based plastics, i.e. non-synthetic polymers produced starting from renewable resources, are gaining special attention as a feasible solution to the environmental issues caused by the concerns due to the impact of waste plastics. Such materials, furthermore, can also represent an alternative to petroleum-derived polymers, due to the scarcity of this raw material in the close future. In the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) family, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) has been the first to be synthesized and characterized. PHB soon gained a great attention from industrial and academic researchers since it can be synthesized from a wide variety of available carbon sources, such as agro-industrial and domestic wastes. The aim of this original research has been the identification of the presence of PHB synthetizing bacteria in some soils in Morocco region and the production of the bio-based PHB. In particular, the soils of the argan fields in Taroudant were considered. Taroudant is a southwestern region of Morocco where the argan oil tree Aragania spinosa is an endemic and preserved species. Starting from rizhospheric soil samples of an argan crop area, we isolated heat-resistant bacteria and obtained pure cultures of it. These bacteria present intracellular endospores stained by Schaeffer-Fulton methods. The presence of intracellular endospores is a very important starting point to verify the effective production of PHB as compartmentalised material. Further analyses are currently ongoing to try to extract and characterize PHB granules.