Biosurfactants produced by Scheffersomyces stipitis cultured in sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate as new green larvicides for the control of Aedes aegypti, a vector of neglected tropical diseases

Abstract

Biosurfactants are microbial metabolites with possible applications in various industrial sectors that are considered ecofriendly molecules. In recent years, some studies identified these compounds as alternatives for the elimination of vectors of tropical diseases, such as Aedes aegypti. The major bottlenecks of biosurfactant industrial production have been the use of conventional raw materials that increase production costs as well as opportunistic or pathogenic bacteria, which restrict the application of these biomolecules. The present study shows the potential of hemicellulosic sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate as a raw material for the production of a crystalline glycolipidic BS by Scheffersomyces stipitis NRRL Y-7124, which resulted in an emulsifying index (EI24) of 70 ± 3.4% and a superficial tension of 52 ± 2.9 mN.m-1. Additionally, a possible new application of these compounds as biolarvicides, mainly against A. aegypti, was evaluated. At a concentration of 800 mg.L-1, the produced biosurfactant caused destruction to the larval exoskeletons 12 h after application and presented an letal concentration (LC50) of 660 mg.L-1. Thus, a new alternative for biosurfactant production using vegetal biomass as raw material within the concept of biorefineries was proposed, and the potential of the crystalline glycolipidic biosurfactant in larvicidal formulations against neglected tropical disease vectors was demonstrated.

Agroindustrial Byproducts for the Generation of Biobased Products: Alternatives for Sustainable Biorefineries

“…BSs are molecules produced by animals (pulmonary surfactants and bile salts), plants (saponins), and microorganisms that present tensoactive and/or emulsifier properties (Shekhar et al, 2015). Besides, some studies reported antimicrobial, antitumor, algicidal, larvicidal, and insecticidal activities for these compounds (Wu et al, 2017;Franco-Marcelino et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2019). These biomolecules are considered eco-friendly or green compounds owing to their high biodegradability, low or non-toxicity, and biocompatibility, not causing risks to the environment and animals, plants, and humans (Fenibo et al, 2019).…”

“…Some lignocellulosic byproducts have been used for the production of BSs. The use of different biomasses as raw materials for the production of hemicellulosic hydrolysates for BS generation is described in the literature, such as trimming vine shoots (Bustos et al, 2005), barley bran, corncobs and Eucalyptus globulus (Moldes et al, 2006), distilled grape marc (Portilla-Rivera et al, 2007), sweet sorghum bagasse hydrolysate (Samad et al, 2014), orange peel (Kumar et al, 2016), sugarcane bagasse (Franco-Marcelino et al, 2017;Marcelino et al, 2019), waste office paper (Nair et al, 2018;Nair et al, 2020), and xylose−rich corncob hydrolysate (Chen et al, 2019).…”

The Strategy of Obtaining Microbial Surfactants With Stable Preset Properties

“…Постановка проблеми. Біодеградательні та нетоксичні мікробні поверхнево-активні речовини (ПАР) мультифункціонального призначення завдяки поверхнево-активним, емульгувальним властивостям, антимікробній та антиадгезивній активності є гідною альтернативою хімічним ПАР для використання у різних галузях промисловості, медицині, а також у природоохоронних технологіях [1][2][3][4][5].…”

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“…Even though the development of resistance has not yet become a serious problem with B. thurengiensis, the insecticidal property, stability and the solubility of the toxin crystals produced by them are susceptible to change in the pH and excessive exposure to the sunlight 12,13 . To overcome such limitations, new bacterial agents are developed 14 . One such compound is biosurfactant.…”