Biosurfactants are of growing interest as sustainable alternatives to fossil-fuel-derived chemical surfactants, particularly for the detergent industry. To realize this potential, it is necessary to understand how they affect proteins which they may encounter in their applications. However, knowledge of such interactions is limited. Here, we present a study of the interactions between the model...

Surfactants are amphipathic molecules constituted by hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions that usually get distributed on interfaces between fluid phases of different polarities (water/oil and oil/water) [1]. Several compounds with tensoactive properties are synthetized by living organisms (animals, plants and microorganisms), being considered natural surfactants or biosurfactants, which reduce ...

The comparative analysis of microbial communities of pure and oil – polluted soils of Ukraine conducted by us has shown the considerable predominance in the latter the representatives of Rhodococcus and Gordonia genera. Among them the most part of strains belonged to the species of Rhodococcus erythropolis and Gordonia rubripertincta. Rhodococcus fascians, Rhodococcus ruber and Dietzia maris sp...

Environmental remediation efforts often utilize either biodegradative microbes or surfactants, but not in combination. Coupling both strategies holds the potential to dramatically increase the rate and extent of remediation because surfactants can enhance the bioavailability of contaminants to microbes. However, many surfactants permeabilize bacterial cell membranes and are effective disinfecta...

The important human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus is known to spread on soft agar plates. Here, we show that colony spreading of S. aureus involves the agr quorum-sensing system. This finding can be related to the agr-dependent expression of biosurfactants, such as phenol-soluble modulins, suggesting a connection between spreading motility and virulence.

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain RHNK22 isolated from groundnut rhizosphere showed direct and indirect plant growth-promoting traits along with biosurfactant activity and reduction in surface tension of water. Biosurfactants were identified as lipopeptides (surfactin, iturin, and fengycin) by molecular and biochemical analysis in our studies.

Candida apicola, a highly osmotolerant ascomycetes yeast, produces sophorolipids (biosurfactants), membrane fatty acids, and enzymes of biotechnological interest. The genome obtained has a high-quality draft for this species and can be used as a reference to perform further analyses, such as differential gene expression in yeast from Candida genera.

Ice-nucleation negative fluorescent pseudomonads isolated from Hebridean cloud and rain water produce biosurfactants H. E. Ahern, K. A. Walsh, T. C. J. Hill, and B. F. Moffett University of East London, Romford Road, Stratford, London, UK Environment Agency, Wallingford, UK Received: 1 September 2006 – Accepted: 15 September 2006 – Published: 4 October 2006 Correspondence to: T. C. J. Hill (t.c...

We have previously reported that the respiratory pathogen Bordetella bronchiseptica can form biofilms in vitro. In this report, we demonstrate the disruption of B. bronchiseptica biofilms by rhamnolipids secreted from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This suggests that biosurfactants such as rhamnolipids may be utilized as antimicrobial agents for removing Bordetella biofilms.

Gordonia amicalis strain CCMA-559 was isolated from an oil-contaminated mangrove swamp and shown to produce biosurfactants. This strain is a strict aerobe that readily degrades an array of carbon sources, including N-acetylglucosamine, cellobiose, Tween 80, and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and, like other G. amicalis strains, likely desulfurizes dibenzothiophene.