Bioprospection of biosurfactant producing microorganisms from the genera Pseudomonas.

Author(s)

Renata de Melo Peixoto

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB/SDI)
• Defense date: 2008-11-14

Examining board members

José Gregorio Cabrera Gomez; Vivian Helena Pellizari; Rosane Aparecida Moniz Piccoli

• Advisor: José Gregorio Cabrera Gomez

Abstract

Biological and chemical surfactants are anphipatic compounds whitch reduce interfaces tension. The present work aimed to isolate microorganisms of samples from diverse environments, chosing among the isolated ones, those capaple of producing biosurfactants and characterizing it according to some of their properties. From 1713 isolated strains, 944 were capable of growing in PIA medium. The supernatant analysis for the presence of fatty acids usually found in rhamnolipds showed that 31 of the 87 strains that presented tensoactive activities, had 3-hydroxyalkanoates (3HD) detected in their supernatant. Other 56 strains did not present characteristic rhamnolipid fatty acids peaks. Based in this resoults 10 isolates were selected for a better characterization of their biosurfactants. The producton os RHLs were confirmed for 3 diferent strains. It was possible to identify a new compound called 2-acethylfuran that was not mentioned by other authors as a possible biosurfactant or as produced by Pseudomonas. (AU)