ABSTRACT
Biosurfactants are microbial-derived compounds with surface and emulsifying activities. Environmental and industrial applications make glycolipid biosurfactants particularly interesting among the several categories of biosurfactants. A potential glycolipid biosurfactant resource, Shewanella algae, was isolated from marine samples at the Persian Gulf. The glycolipid biosurfactant caused a reduction in water surface tension from 72 to 43 mN/m with a 0.25 mg/mL critical micelle concentration (CMC). Two-level factorial design was then applied for optimization of biosurfactant production, where a maximal reduction of culture broth surface tension (31 mN/m) acquired in the presence of crude oil (0.5%, v/v), NaNO3 (0.2 g/L), NH4Cl (0.7 g/L), and peptone (0.5 g/L). GC-MS analysis of the culture broth showed when crude oil was used as the sole carbon source, S. algae was able to degrade most of its alkane components. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy revealed the glycolipid structure of biosurfactant. The glycolipid biosurfactant exhibited considerable growth inhibition of clinical bacterial pathogens and disrupted the preformed biofilms of Bacillus cereus (83%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (53%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (92%), Escherichia coli (64%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (87%), and Acinetobacter sp. (72%). In conclusion, the glycolipid biosurfactant secreted by S. algae exhibited a wide range of functional properties and was evidenced as a promising candidate for biomedical application.
