Biotechnological applications of purple non sulphur phototrophic bacteria: A minireview.
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Date
2012-01
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Abstract
Bacteria play in vital role in the production of variety of products, including certain plastics and enzymes
used in detergents, textiles and pharmaceutical industries. Production of chemicals using bacteria and
other microorganisms is not only economical sustainable but also ecofriendly. Modern biotechnology
entails the use of cell fusion, bioinformatics, genetic engineering, structure based molecular design and
hybridoma technology. The presence of photosynthetic bacteria along with the heterotrophic bacteria
have been reported in various aquatic environments like Indian tropical waters (Vasavi et al., 2007), salt
marshes (Bergstein et al., 1993), industrial effluents (Ramasamy et al., 1990; Merugu et al., 2008), sea
water (Kobayashi,1982), sewage (Kobayashi et al., 1995), waste water (Sunita and Mitra, 1993 and
Vasavi et al., 2007), hot water springs (Demchick et al., 1990), earthworm casts (Vasavi et al., 2007),
paddy fields (Sasikala et al., 2004), ocean waters and aquaculture (Kappler et al.,2005), brackish lagoon
(Anthony et al., 2006), and black sea (Overmann and Manske, 2006). Blankenship et al. (1995) studied
taxonomy of anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria.
These bacteria preferably grow by a photoheterotrophic metabolism with organic
substances as electron donors during their photosynthetic activity. Most species are also capable of
growing photoautotrophically with molecular hydrogen as donor. They have high protein content with
good amount of essential amino acids, vitamins, biological co-factors and fewer amounts of nucleic
acids (Sasikala and Ramana, 1995, Merugu et al.,2008). Many workers have recommended purple non
sulphur bacteria as a source of SCP for pisciculture and poultry industry (Salma et al., 2007), vitamin B12
(Sasikala and Ramana,1995), Ubiquinone Q10 used in clinical medicine (Sasaki et al., 2002) and
therapeutically used compounds (Nagumo et al., 1991). Mitsui (1985), while discussing multiple
utilisation of tropical and subtropical marine photosynthetic organisms, suggested that some
photosynthetic bacterial strains may prove to be an economical source of carbohydrate material for
bacterial mediated methane production. Carotenoids produced by Rb.sphaeroides are used as natural
dyes and food dyes (Qian et al., 1991). The profile of essential amino acids of anoxygenic phototrophic
bacteria is comparable to those of soyabean and egg proteins (Ponsanio et al., 2002) and higher than
those of other single cell protein (Azad et al., 2001). Mass production of Rhodopseudomonas palustris
as diet for aquaculture was studied by Kim and Lee (2000). Many of phototrophic bacteria are reported
to leach out ammonia during their growth as amino acids. Ammonia leaching was observed in resting
cells of Rhodobacter sphaeroides O.U.001 in the absence of MSX under various gas phases (Sasikala
and Ramana, 1990). Hiroo (2004) used a mixed culture of photosynthetic bacteria for ammonia
leaching.
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Merugu Ramchander, Rudra M P Pratap, Girisham S, Reddy S M. Biotechnological applications of purple non sulphur phototrophic bacteria: A minireview. International Journal of Applied Biology and Pharmaceutical Technology. 2012 Jan-Mar; 3(1): 376-384.