2. Materials and methods
2.1. Microorganisms
An industrial strain of Aspergillus oryzae that was kindly provided
by Professor Colin Webb (University of Manchester, UK) was
employed in solid state fermentations (SSF). Kachrimanidou et al.
(2013) reported the isolation, purification and maintenance protocols
for A. oryzae.
Bacterial fermentations for PHB production were conducted
with the bacterial strain Cupriavidus necator DSM 7237. Bacterial
stock cultures were maintained at 4 ◦C in Petri dishes. Liquid media
for inocula preparation constituted of 10 g L−1 pure glycerol (99%,
Sigma–Aldrich), 10 g L−1 yeast extract (Himedia) and 10 g L−1 peptone
(Fluka). Solid media for bacterial stock cultures contained also
20gL−1 agar–agar (Sigma–Aldrich).