Biosurfactant production by halotolerant Rhodococcus fascians from Casey Station, Wilkes Land, Antarctica.

Victoria Gesheva (1) , Erko Stackebrandt (2) , Evgenia Vasileva-Tonkova (1)

1 Institut Stephan Angeloff
2 DSMZ - Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH / Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures

Isolate A-3 from Antarctic soil in Casey Station, Wilkes Land, was characterized for growth on hydrocarbons. Use of glucose or kerosene as a sole carbon source in the culture medium favoured biosynthesis of surfactant which, by thin-layer chromatography, indicated the formation of a rhamnose-containing glycolipid. This compound lowered the surface tension at the air/water interface to 27 mN/m as well as inhibited the growth of B. subtilis ATCC 6633 and exhibited hemolytic activity. A highly hydrophobic surface of the cells suggests that uptake occurs via a direct cell-hydrocarbon substrate contact. Strain A-3 is Gram-positive, halotolerant, catalase positive, urease negative and has rod-coccus shape. Its cell walls contained meso-diaminopimelic acid. Phylogenetic analysis based on comparative analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain A-3 is closely related to Rhodococcus fascians with which it shares 100% sequence similarity. This is the first report on rhamnose-containing biosurfactant production by Rhodococcus fascians isolated from Antarctic soil.

Domains: Microbiology and Parasitology

Victoria Gesheva, Erko Stackebrandt, Evgenia Vasileva-Tonkova. Biosurfactant production by halotolerant Rhodococcus fascians from Casey Station, Wilkes Land, Antarctica.. Current Microbiology, 2010, 61 (2), pp.112-7. ⟨10.1007/s00284-010-9584-7⟩. ⟨pasteur-00748956⟩