With the unnecessary use of plastics and cumulative pressure being placed on capacities available for plastic waste disposal, the need for biodegradable plastics and biodegradation of plastic wastes has assumed increasing importance in the last few years. Bioplastic production from mustard oil was considered relatively cheap, easily available, included in vegetable oil and don’t having much volatile characteristics. Total of 67 bacterial strains were isolated and purified from different regions of the Pakistan, and were checked for Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production by Sudan black and Nile blue staining. Quantitative analysis for biodegradable plastic produced by different bacterial species was performed by Modified surfactant hypochlorite method. High PHA production was detected in 35 strains belonging to different genera including Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Escherichia and Enterobacter. Fermentation and PHA production was done in batch culture. The PHA production of P. aeruginosa by mustered oil cultivation was studied under six experimental conditions, such as air flow rates, pH, Temperature, optical density, substrates concentration and cell dry weight. PHA production of Pseudomonas species were subsequently authenticated at molecular level by PCR amplifications and sequence analysis. PHA polymerase 1 (PhaC1) and PHA polymerase 2 (PhaC2) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa were amplified, sequenced and submitted to gene bank.

Hydrocarbon containing compounds like diesel, crude oil and petrol cause environmental pollution. Hydrocarbon contaminated sites contain large amount of microbial community adapted for utilizing these compound as a source of carbon and other metabolic activities. A study was conducted in order to isolate the micro-organism from hydrocarbon contaminated sites for petroleum degradation. The soil sample was collected from the bus terminal of Punjab University, Lahore. The isolate (Micrococcus sp.) was characterized microbiologically by using microbiological techniques such as staining and biochemical testing based on Bergey's manual. Isolated organism has an ability to degrade the petrol as well as paraffin wax as a sole carbon source. This ability shows clear evidence that genome of this isolate harbors gene for degradation. By combined both properties, we can reduce petroleum product from hydrocarbon impacted environment.