Candida –produced biosurfactants– beneficial agents for environmental remediation biotechnologies

Abstract

Although the Candida genus is extensively studied mainly due to its pathogenicity and virulence, the genus comprises numerous species and strains isolated from industrial or natural environments (soil, plants, a.s.o.). Due to their specific metabolic abilities, these strains are able to synthesize compounds with high economic value such as lipids, lipases, fatty acids and biosurfactants using low cost substrates including industrial and household wastes. The biosurfactants represent an advantageous ecologic alternative for synthetic surfactants for a wide range of biotechnological and industrial applications. Bioremediation of polluted soils, including those used in agriculture, represent a challenging domain in which the Candida-produced biosurfactants can be successfully used for in situ as well as ex situ technologies. The biosurfactants are also important biocontrol agents for crop protection. Therefore, during the last decades many studies were developed concerning the classification, gene regulation and optimization of parameters for obtaining biosurfactants from Candida sp.

Fertilization and Soil Microbial Community: A Review

“…The most common soil organic amendments (Table 1) are animal manure [160][161][162][163], municipal biosolids [33], crop residues (forage or various crop varieties), compost and digestate. Some complementary fertilization options other than the use of chemical fertilizers include the use of bio-surfactants [164], biomineralization [165] and biofertilizers [166][167][168], including microbial suspension and seaweed concentrate [25,169,170]. The use of plant growth-promoting microorganisms [171] is a very promising tool that could also have positive effects by inhibiting pathogens through the production of antibiotics or cell wall lytic enzymes, inducing plant defence mechanisms [172].…”

Molecular Basis of Yeasts Antimicrobial Activity—Developing Innovative Strategies for Biomedicine and Biocontrol

“…The biosurfactants produced by yeasts receive high consideration due, on one hand, to the restricted access of bacterial biosurfactants in food and therapeutics, and, on the other hand, to the fact that many biosurfactant producing yeast species are presently recognized as safe (GRAS) and do not produce biocompounds and extracellular proteins harmful for human and animal use. The biosurfactants produced by the yeast species belonging to the Candida, Pseudozyma, Saccharomyces, Rhodotorula, Yarrowia, Kluyveromyces, Wickerhamomyces and Debaryomyces genera are classified according to their chemical structure in: glycolipids (sophorolipids, mannosylerytrithol lipids), polymeric biosurfactants (carbohydrate-protein complexes, carbohydrate-protein-lipid complexes, mannan-lipid-proteins, lipomanan, liposan), fatty acids and lipids [145,146]. The rhodotorulic acid is relevant for the biologic control of postharvest disease caused by P. expansum.…”