Production of bacterial cellulose from Komagataeibacter saccharivorans strain BC1 isolated from rotten green grapes

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is one of the prominent biopolymers that has been acquiring attention currently due to its distinctive properties and applications in various fields. The current work presents the isolation of Komagataeibacter saccharivorans strain BC1 isolated from rotten green grapes, followed by biochemical and genotypic characterization, which confirmed that the strain is capable of synthesizing cellulose. Further, production media was designed and certain variables such as carbon, nitrogen sources, pH, and temperature were optimized in order to obtain the maximum concentration of cellulose production. We found mannitol to be the ideal carbon source and yeast extract as the ideal nitrogen source with a highest BC dry yield of 1.81 +/- 0.25 g/100 mL at pH 5.76 for a week at 30 degrees C.The charcterization of pellicles by FTIR spectrum depicted similar functional groups present in synthesized BC as that of the commercial cellulose. X-ray diffraction revealed that BC showed 82% crystallinity. Surface morphology of the dried pellicle was studied by SEM image which showed that the BC surface was tightly packed with thin fibers with less porosity. Hence the study demonstrates that the isolates of K.saccharivorans could be used to produce a biopolymer in a short period of time using a modified production medium.