Abstract
Biofilms are omnipresent in clinical and industrial settings and most of the times cause detrimental side effects. Finding efficient strategies to control surface-growing communities of micro-organisms remains a significant challenge. Rhamnolipids are extracellular secondary metabolites with surface-active properties mainly produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. There is growing evidence for the implication of this biosurfactant in different stages of biofilm development of this bacterium. Furthermore, rhamnolipids display a significant potential as anti-adhesive and disrupting agents against established biofilms formed by several bacterial and fungal species. Their low toxicity, biodegradability, efficiency and specificity, compared to synthetic surfactants typically used in biofilm control, might compensate for the economic hurdle still linked to their superior production costs and make them promising antifouling agents.
Highlights
Our idea of bacteria’s lifestyle as loner planktonic organisms has dramatically changed; we rather consider them as highly social organisms living in communities (Shapiro 1998)
The best studied model to investigate the involvement of a biosurfactant in adhesion and biofilm development is production of rhamnolipids by the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Rhamnolipids are actively involved in different stages of biofilm development The first published insights about the role of rhamnolipids in the structural regulation of biofilm development showed the ambivalent influence of rhamnolipids on impediment of biofilm development of Ps. aeruginosa depending on the spatiotemporal action of rhamnolipids; the exogenous addition of rhamnolipids impeded initial bacterial adhesion, it had no effect on preformed biofilm (Davey et al 2003)
Summary
Our idea of bacteria’s lifestyle as loner planktonic organisms has dramatically changed; we rather consider them as highly social organisms living in communities (Shapiro 1998). The general potential of biosurfactants in altering cell surface properties of different micro-organisms and interfering with initial adhesion to solid surfaces and biofilm formation are increasingly investigated (Ron and Rosenberg 2001; Flemming and Wingender 2010; Rendueles and Ghigo 2012).
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