Abstract
Various photoautotrophic cyanobacteria accumulate intracellular poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) granules. This protocol can be used for determining the PHB contents of the cells as % PHB weight per dry cell weight using acid hydrolysis followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This HPLC analysis is rapid, with a running time of approximately 5 min per sample. The technique can accurately determine PHB concentrations in the range of 2-1,000 μg/mL PHB. However, this technique is not applicable for determining the contents of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) in cyanobacteria.