Marine Microbial Production of Rhamnolipid Biosurfactant

Rhamnolipids are a class of biosurfactants that contain rhamnose as the sugar moiety attached to a beta-hydroxylated fatty acid chain. Rhamnolipids are glycolipids containing hydrophilic groups, consisting of one or two (L)-rhamnose molecules, with a glycosidic bond with a hydrophobic group consisting of one or two β-hydroxy fatty acids. Microbial fermentation produces a variety of different rhamnolipid congeners, which vary in chain length, degree of unsaturation of fatty acid chains, and the number of rhamnose molecules. Rhamnolipids are mainly produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Rhamnolipids containing one and two rhamnose molecules are called mono-rhamnolipids and di-rhamnolipids, respectively. Rhamnolipids can be widely used in many industrial fields such as petroleum, bioremediation, agriculture, cosmetics, food processing, and medicine due to their excellent surface activity and biological activity. In particular, rhamnolipids can be used in the manufacture of fine chemicals and surface coatings, as food additives and biological control agents. Novel non-pathogenic rhamnolipids with enhanced production capacity are urgently needed, and scaling up through bioprocess engineering is important to meet future forecasts of the biosurfactants market.

Fig. 1 Rhamnolipid production in Pseudomonas. (Chong H, et al., 2017)

Our Services

CD BioSciences provides customers with laboratory-scale rhamnolipid production and large-scale rhamnolipid production in laboratory-controlled conditions and field conditions. Rhamnolipids are believed to be produced by hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms, and the microorganisms used in our production are mainly shown in the table below:

Our Various Strategies to Increase Rhamnolipid Yield

• Improving rhamnolipid yield through random mutagenesis
• Metabolic engineering for non-pathogenic strains
• Metabolic engineering of P. aeruginosa to increase yield
• Synthesis of rhamnolipids in vitro

The Flow Chart of Rhamnolipids Production

Applications of Rhamnolipids

• Bioremediation and enhanced oil recovery
  Rhamnolipid has excellent emulsifying properties, which can effectively remove crude oil from contaminated soil and promote oil spill bioremediation
• Pharmaceuticals and therapeutics
  Rhamnolipids exhibit low toxicity, surface activity, and antibacterial activity against a variety of microorganisms (Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes) and are therefore used in pharmaceuticals and therapeutics with broadly application foreground.
• Detergents and cleaners
  Rhamnolipids are natural emulsifiers and surfactants and are therefore widely used in detergent compositions, laundry products, shampoos and soaps.

CD BioSciences is a professional service provider for the marine biology industry. Our marine microbial production services of rhamnolipid that can ensure that the most suitable methods and techniques are selected for your project. We provide our customers with the most precise ingredient data and highly informed process expertise. Our team of biomass experts plays a key role in the formulation, optimization and commercial evaluation of biomass value-added processes in industry and academia. If necessary, please feel free to contact us.

Reference

• Chong H, Li Q. Microbial production of rhamnolipids: opportunities, challenges and strategies[J]. Microbial cell factories, 2017, 16(1): 1-12.

Please kindly note that our services can only be used to support research purposes (Not for clinical use).