Production of glycolipid biosurfactants by basidiomycetous yeasts.

Abstract

A low-cost microBR (microbioreactor) made from PTFE poly(tetrafluoroethylene) was used to cultivate a model organism, Pseudomonas aeruginosa DS10-129. The progress of bioprocessing was monitored by comparing the growth of the organism in a microBR, a conventional bench scale bioreactor and a shake flask. Under the microBR conditions, the organism produced 23 mg/ml of pyocyanin that had antimicrobial effects against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas teessidea and Pseudomonas clemancea. Furthermore, it produced a total of 106 microg/ml of effective biosurfactants consisting of dirhamnolipids (RL2) and monorhamnolipids (RL1). The biosurfactants reduced the surface tension of distilled water from 72 to 27.9 mN/m and emulsified kerosene by 71.30%. The pyocyanin and rhamnolipids were produced during the exponential and stationary phases of growth respectively. The results of the microBR were comparable to those obtained using conventional scale methods.

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