Production of Sophorolipid from an Identified Current Yeast, Lachancea thermotolerans BBMCZ7FA20, Isolated from Honey Bee

Abstract

Biosurfactants are a family of diverse amphipathic molecules that are produced by several microorganisms such as bacteria, molds, and yeasts. These surface active agents have several applications in agriculture, oil processing, food, and pharmaceutical industries. In this research using YMG and YUG culture media, a native yeast strain, HG5, was isolated from honey bee. The oil spread test as a screening method was used to evaluate biosurfactant production by the yeast HG5 isolate. The 5.8s-rDNA analysis confirmed that the isolated yeast was related to Lachancea thermotolerans. We named this strain Lachancea thermotolerans strain BBMCZ7FA20 and its 5.8s-rDNA sequence was deposited in GenBank, NCBI under accession number of KM042082.1. The best precursor of biosurfactant production was canola oil and the sophorolipid amount was measured for 24.2 g/l. The thin layer chromatography and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis showed that the extracted biosurfactant from Lachancea thermotolerans was sophorolipid. In conclusion, this is the first report of sophorolipid production by a native yeast Lachancea thermotolerans BBMCZ7FA20 we isolated from the honey bee gut collected from an apiary farm in Saman, Chaharmahal Bakhtiari province, Iran. We suggested that some cost-effective supplements such as canola oil, sunflower oil, and corn oils could be applied for increasing the sophorolipid production by this native yeast strain. According to several applications of biosurfactants in today world, the production of sophorolipid by Lachancea thermotolerans could be considered as a potential in the current industrial microbiology and modern microbial biotechnology.

Metabarcoding analysis and fermentation performance of the dominant fungal microbiota associated with the Algerian traditional date product “Btana”

“…Other studies confirmed our observation and emphasized that L. thermotolerans is a potent ethanolproducing yeast associated with fruits, fruit jams, and high sugar food (Freel et al 2014). Recently, this species has also been used for production of valuable compounds like sophorolipid surfactants (Mousavi et al 2015). Regarding ethanol resistance, only P. subpelliculosa strains were able to sustain high ethanol, whereas Z. rouxii strains showed a poor tolerance of acidity in the presence 0.5% of acetic acid.…”

Fungal biosurfactants, from nature to biotechnological product: bioprospection, production and potential applications

“…The limitations of the blood haemolysis test are related to difficulties in maintaining the culture conditions in the blood agar media that would favour the production of biosurfactants in addition to possible interference of microbial haemolysins with the results [ 154 ]. Low biosurfactant concentration produced can also present weak diffusion in the solid medium and favour the non-formation of halos [ 25 ].…”

“…Low biosurfactant concentration produced can also present weak diffusion in the solid medium and favour the non-formation of halos [ 25 ]. Some results of blood haemolysis tests for fungi and yeasts have been shown to be false-negatives, as they have shown negative results for haemolysis while other positive results are obtained for different tests of surface activity and/or emulsification indexes [ 40 , 67 , 154 ]. Therefore, due to the variability of the results, other screening tests must be associated with blood haemolysis to corroborate biosurfactant production.…”

“…Although cultivable microorganisms represent less than 1% of the diversity of known microbial species [ 149 ], the bioprospecting of fungal strains by culture-dependent technique has enabled the discovery of new biosurfactant-producing strains [ 147 ] as well as novel biosurfactant structures [ 150 ]. Biosurfactant-producing fungi were isolated from hydrocarbon/petroleum contaminated soil samples [ 151 ], plant structures such as roots [ 40 ], stems [ 147 ], leaves [ 147 ], cones [ 152 ], flowers [ 150 ], fruits [ 153 ]; and animals such as porifers [ 43 ] and arthropods [ 154 ].…”

“…Biosurfactants are considered extracellular or cell membrane-associated secondary metabolites and have an ecological role similar to antibiotics and pigments that interact in membrane regulation [ 59 , 154 , 213 ]. However, some authors report that biosurfactant biosynthesis is associated with microbial growth when hydrophobic substrates are used, which indicates that these primary metabolites may also facilitate the absorption of substrates for fungi development [ 151 , 198 , 214 ].…”