Polyhydroxyalkanoate is a natural biodegradable polymer that can be used as a substitute of petrochemical plastic. The present study has been conducted in order to assess the potential of native Pseudomonas species to produce environment friendly polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by using a combination of phenotypic and genotypic methods. A variety of environmental and clinical samples were screened for the detection of PHA producing Pseudomonas species. A total of 73 Pseudomonas strains were studied for the PHA production. The genotypic characterization of the isolates revealed the presence of phaC gene among 16 P. aeruginosa strains of which 13 were environmental and 03 were clinical isolates. Sudan Black B staining also revealed the accumulation of PHA granules among the P. aeruginosa strains which gave positive results in genotypic characterization.
