Bacterial biopolymers are a competitive new area of research with potential applications in agriculture, petroleum exploration, and use as biodegradable plastics. This new volume provides comprehensive coverage of bacterial biopolymers. The book elucidates the main classes of bacterial biopolymers--polysaccharides and polyesters or polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)--along with their definition, classification, detection, extraction, characterization, fermentation process, structure and properties, applications and uses, functions, and more.

The volume covers

• Detection, extraction, and characterization of bacterial biopolymers
• Molecular identification of bacterial isolates
• The fermentation process
• Structure and properties of PHAs
• Biochemical characterization of the PHA-producing bacterial strains
• In vitro biodegradation study of PHA film by soil microorganisms
• PHAs for enhancing the stability of colloidal silver nanoparticles (SNP)

This volume is an important source of information on the concerned bacteria, the biochemical characteristics of biopolymers, and their potential use.