Abstract
Biosurfactants are amphiphilic secondary metabolites produced by microorganisms. Marine bacteria have recently emerged as a rich source for these natural products which exhibit surface-active properties, making them useful for diverse applications such as detergents, wetting and foaming agents, solubilisers, emulsifiers and dispersants. Although precise structural data are often lacking, the already available information deduced from biochemical analyses and genome sequences of marine microbes indicates a high structural diversity including a broad spectrum of fatty acid derivatives, lipoamino acids, lipopeptides and glycolipids. This review aims to summarise biosyntheses and structures with an emphasis on low molecular weight biosurfactants produced by marine microorganisms and describes various biotechnological applications with special emphasis on their role in the bioremediation of oil-contaminated environments. Furthermore, novel exploitation strategies are suggested in an attempt to extend the existing biosurfactant portfolio.
Highlights
Microorganisms produce a large variety of secondary metabolites that are of interest for the biotech and pharma industries
For recombinant biosurfactant production with P. putida and E. coli, plasmid-based gene expression has been used in most cases [130,235,236,237], whereas chromosomal integration of biosynthetic genes becomes increasingly popular in natural products research in general [222,238]
Marine environments are a promising source for a large variety of surface-active metabolites
Summary
Microorganisms produce a large variety of secondary metabolites that are of interest for the biotech and pharma industries. Mar. Drugs 2019, 17, 408 aspects are considered as important, as biosurfactants can be produced from renewable resources and they exhibit low eco-toxicity in connection with supreme biological degradability preventing environmental accumulation [6,7]. Drugs 2019, 17, 408 aspects are considered as important, as biosurfactants can be produced from renewable resources and they exhibit low eco-toxicity in connection with supreme biological degradability preventing environmental accumulation [6,7] These properties form the basis of the pronounced interest in this class of metabolites [8] for biotechnological applications, for example, as detergents, wetting agents for hydrophobic surfaces or fibres, and emulsifiers. Strategies for future biotechnological exploitations of such compounds are discussed
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