Quorum sensing: implications on Rhamnolipid biosurfactant production

Abstract

Quorum sensing (QS) has received significant attention in the past few decades. QS describes population density dependent cell to cell communication in bacteria using diffusible signal molecules. These signal molecules produced by bacterial cells, regulate various physiological processes important for social behavior and pathogenesis. One such process regulated by quorum sensing molecules is the production of a biosurfactant, rhamnolipid. Rhamnolipids are important microbially derived surface active agents produced by Pseudomonas spp. under the control of two interrelated quorum sensing systems; namely las and rhl. Rhamnolipids possess antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. They are important in motility, cell to cell interactions, cellular differentiation and formation of water channels that Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews -Vol. 27, 159-184 (2010) Quorum sensing (QS) has received significant attention in the past few decades. QS describes population density dependent cell to cell communication in bacteria using diffusible signal molecules. These signal molecules produced by bacterial cells, regulate various physiological processes important for social behavior and pathogenesis. One such process regulated by quorum sensing molecules is the production of a biosurfactant, rhamnolipid Rhamnolipids are important microbially derived surface active agents produced by Pseudomonas spp. under the control of two interrelated quorum sensing systems; namely las and rhl Rhamnolipids possess antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. They are important in motility, cell to cell interactions, cellular differentiation and formation of water channels that *To whom correspondence may be addressed (p.rahman@tees.ac.uk) Abbreviations: QS: quorum sensing; AI: autoinducer; HSL: homoserine lactone; AHL: acyl homoserine lactone; PQS: pseudomonas quinolone signal; sRNA: small ribonucleic acid; RL: rhamnolipid; HAA: 3-(3-hydroxyalkanoyloxy) alkanoic acid; CTAB: cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide; TLC: thin layer chromatography; GC: gas chromatography; MS: mass spectroscopy; FTIR: fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; ATR: attenuated total reflectance; NMR: nuclear magnetic resonance; SDS: sodium dodecyl sulfate; CMC: critical micelle concentration; LPS: lipopolysaccharide; TMV: tobacco mosaic virus; PAT: pseudomonas autoinducer; FAD: flavin adenine dinucleotide; NAD: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide; TDP: thiamine di-phosphate; mN/m-milli-Newton per meter 160 D.H. Dusane et al. are characteristics of Pseudomonas biofilms. Rhamnolipids have biotechnological applications in the uptake of hydrophobic substrates, bioremediation of contaminated soils and polluted waters. Rhamnolipid biosurfactants are biodegradable as compared to chemical surfactants and hence are more preferred in environmental applications. In this review, we examine the biochemical and genetic mechanism of rhamnolipid production by P. aeruginosa and propose the application of QS signal molecules in enhancing the rhamnoli...

Rhamnolipid biosurfactant production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain KVD-HR42 isolated from oil contaminated mangrove sediments

“…Biosurfactants can be glycolipids, lipopeptides, lipolysaccharides, polysaccharide-protein complexes, fatty acids, and lipids (Makkar et al, 2011). The rhamnolipids are class of biosurfactants that received great attention and were extensively reported to possess applications in commercial, therapeutic environmental, and biomedical (Dusane et al, 2010). Despite the fact that rhamnolipids are commercially applicable in various fields, their production at industrial scale was not yet exploited in commercial scale particularly because of their constraints, such as low yields, high production costs, expensive raw materials and inefficient product recovery methods (dos Santos et al, 2013).…”

Microbiotechnology Based Surfactants and Their Applications

“…Biosurfactants production is known to be controlled by a sophisticated and highly organized regulatory network at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional level (Dusane et al, 2010;Reis et al, 2011). Factors that were shown to play a key role in biosurfactants production include quorum sensing and stress conditions like nutrients deprivation.…”

Production of Biosurfactants Using Eco-friendly Microorganisms

“…The development of biosurfactant production in nonpathogenic organisms is a current challenge that is receiving increased attention in order to avoid pathogenicity and complex metabolic regulations (Dusane et al 2010 ) especially in rhamnolipid synthesis by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and to screen for novel product spectra (Müller et al 2012 ). Application of crude biosurfactants from pathogens in industrial and environmental applications is largely unacceptable especially in the cosmetics, health and food sectors due to the potential presence of toxins and pigments (Nicas and Iglewski 1985 ).…”