Role of Biosurfactants in Nature, and Biotechnological Applications

Abstract

In nature, biosurfactants are amphiphilic molecules, capable to emulsify and decrease surface tension water, mainly glycolipids are the most known and studied produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These compounds are produced by microorganisms (bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi) who has genes, metabolic pathways and as a consequence are physiologically adapted in order to uptake organic matter non-soluble. Recently, the interest for its biotechnological production has increased, because of their environmental, industrial, and pharmaceutical applications, and others. Through microbial biodiversity exploration, on terrestrial or aquatic environments polluted with persistant organic compounds non-soluble in water, is possible to isolate microorganisms with tensoactive properties and capable to biodegrade pollutants. This can be done by use of selective culture media, tensoactive tests and molecular tools. Biosurfactants are promising products and actually some commercial products are applied and patented.