A mini review on cyanophycin: Production, analysis and its applications

Abstract

Cyanophycin or Cyanophycin Granule Polypeptide (CGP), a non-ribosomally synthesized amino acid polymer, consists of equimolar amounts of arginine and aspartic acid. It can be soluble under acidic (pH < 2) or alkaline (pH > 9) conditions. Cyanophycin has many advantages: high viscosity, high solubility and complete biodegradability. Because of its soluble and polymeric nature, CGP can be used in the fields of medical biotechnology for scaffold production. It has been proposed as an eco-friendly alternative for poly (acrylic acid) as water softening agents. CGP is usually produced by different species of cyanobacteria and also by some heterotrophic bacteria like Acinetobacter sp., Bordetella bronchiseptica, Clostridium botulinum, Desulfitobacterium hafniense, etc. Due to the low yield of CGP by cyanobacteria, bacterial strains are commercially preferred for industrial scale. Acinetobacter have been found to have high accumulation (46 % of cell dry weight) of CGP. Bacterial strains are grown in different production medium and the productivity of cyanophycin was analyzed. It has been found that addition of arginine to the medium has enhanced CGP accumulation. Characterization of cyanophycin can be performed by SDS-PAGE, HPLC and Mass spectroscopy analysis. Native PAGE analysis reveals that CGP occurs in the range of 21–29 kDa. Cyanophycin has potential applications in the fields of biomedicine, agro-chemistry, pharmacy and personal care.