Produção e caracterização do biossurfatante produzido pela bactéria marinha Brevibacterium luteolum

Abstract

Biosurfactants (BS) are microbial-derived molecules showing tensoactive and emulsification properties. These compounds are candidates to replace synthetic surfactants for industrial applications due to their less toxicity, greater biodegradation capacity, greater chemical diversity and greater efficiency and effectiveness under extreme physical conditions of salinity, pressure and temperature. Commercial and industrial use of BS is not sustainable due their high production cost mainly related to low production yields. The use of low cost substrates and statistical tools to enhance the production yield of biosurfactants are two of the main strategies to deal with that problem. The objective of this work was to study the production and recovery of the BS produced by B. luteolum, aiming to enhance its production through a factorial experimental design, and to characterize the chemical structure of the BS. It was found that resin adsorption was more effective than acid precipitation to recover the BS. The production of BS was enhanced through a factorial experimental design 2 3 using the concentrations of the carbon source (mineral oil), the nitrogen source (ammonium nitrate) and artificial seawater as the factors and the surface tension of a solution 0,1% of BS as the response. The value of factors that enhanced the production of BS were 4% of carbon source, 2% of nitrogen source and 20% of artificial sea water showing a surface tension of 27mNm -1. The BS was characterized as a mix of lipopeptides with fatty acid chains varying between 10-18 carbon units and a total protein content of 5%. Three chemical structures were proposed for the active compounds: two proline-lipids with the fatty acid chains C 16:0 e C 18:0 respectively and a lipopeptide with a peptide sequence Phe-Al-X-X-Pro-Pro-Thr (X=Leu/Ile) linked to a fatty acid chain C 16:0 . BS did not show antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, E. coli, S. enteritidis, L. monocytogenes and S. mutans at concentration range tested. The use of mineral oil as a substrate for the production of the BS suggests that the bacteria and the BS can be explore for applications as bioremediation and enhanced oil recovery (EOR).