Chemical Structure, Property and Potential Applications of Biosurfactants Produced by Bacillus subtilis in Petroleum Recovery and Spill Mitigation

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Jin-Feng Liu¹  Serge Maurice Mbadinga¹  Shi-Zhong Yang¹  Ji-Dong Gu²  Bo-Zhong Mu¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering and Institute of Applied Chemistry, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; E-Mails:;School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China; E-Mail:

关键词: microbial biosurfactant;    surfactin;    structure and property;    molecular behavior;    potential applications;    bioremediation;    enhanced oil recovery;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms16034814

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Lipopeptides produced by microorganisms are one of the five major classes of biosurfactants known and they have received much attention from scientific and industrial communities due to their powerful interfacial and biological activities as well as environmentally friendly characteristics. Microbially produced lipopeptides are a series of chemical structural analogues of different families and, among them, 26 families covering about 90 lipopeptide compounds have been reported in the last two decades. This paper reviews the chemical structural characteristics and molecular behaviors of surfactin, one of the representative lipopeptides of the 26 families. In particular, two novel surfactin molecules isolated from cell-free cultures of Bacillus subtilis HSO121 are presented. Surfactins exhibit strong self-assembly ability to form sphere-like micelles and larger aggregates at very low concentrations. The amphipathic and surface properties of surfactins are related to the existence of the minor polar and major hydrophobic domains in the three 3-D conformations. In addition, the application potential of surfactin in bioremediation of oil spills and oil contaminants, and microbial enhanced oil recovery are discussed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.