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Simple method for quantification of anionic biosurfactants in aqueous solutions.
Sass, Gabriele; Groleau, Marie-Christine; Déziel, Eric; Stevens, David A.
Affiliation
  • Sass G; California Institute for Medical Research, San Jose, CA, United States.
  • Groleau MC; Institut National de la Recherche Scientific-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Laval, QC, Canada.
  • Déziel E; Institut National de la Recherche Scientific-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie, Laval, QC, Canada.
  • Stevens DA; California Institute for Medical Research, San Jose, CA, United States.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol ; 11: 1253652, 2023.
Article in En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37885452
ABSTRACT
Biosurfactants are microbial products that have applications as cleaning agents, emulsifiers, and dispersants. Detection and quantification of biosurfactants can be done by various methods, including colorimetric tests, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to several types of detectors, and tests that take advantage of biosurfactants reducing surface tension of aqueous liquids, allowing for spreading and droplet formation of oils. We present a new and simple method for quantifying biosurfactants by their ability, on paper, to reduce surface tension of aqueous solutions, causing droplet dispersion on an oiled surface in correlation with biosurfactant content. We validated this method with rhamnolipids, surfactin, sophorolipids, and ananatoside B; all are anionic microbial surfactants. Linear ranges for quantification in aqueous solutions for all tested biosurfactants were between 10 and 500 µM. Our method showed time-dependent biosurfactant accumulation in cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains PA14 and PAO1, and Burkholderia thailandensis E264. Mutants in genes responsible for surfactant production showed negligible activity on oiled paper. In summary, our simple assay provides the opportunity to quantify biosurfactant contents of aqueous solutions, for a diversity of surfactants, by means readily available in any laboratory.
Key words

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Language: En Journal: Front Bioeng Biotechnol Year: 2023 Document type: Article Affiliation country: United States

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Language: En Journal: Front Bioeng Biotechnol Year: 2023 Document type: Article Affiliation country: United States