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Adsorption of monorhamnolipid and dirhamnolipid on two Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains and the effect on cell surface hydrophobicity

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Abstract

Previously, adsorption feature of a dirhamnolipid biosurfactant on diverse microbial cells was studied and the effect of the adsorption on cell surface hydrophobicity was compared. In this paper, the adsorption behavior of a monorhamnolipid and a dirhamnolipid on cells of two Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains was investigated in order to further reveal the influence of biosurfactant structure and cell property on the adsorption and the relation between the adsorption and cell surface hydrophobicity. Experimental results showed that the adsorption capacity of all the cells to monorhamnolipid was much stronger than to dirhamnolipid, and the rhamnolipid-sourced P. aeruginosa cells, no matter grown on glucose or hexadecane, released extra dirhamnolipid when aqueous concentration of dirhamnolipid was too high. Length of surfactant alkyl chain as well as the type of carbon source used to cultivate the cell adsorbents had only minor influence on the adsorption. The adsorption was assumed to be driven by polar interaction between the rhamnolipid molecules and the cell surface chemical groups. The directional orientation of the rhamnolipid molecules with hydrophobic moiety extending to the environment may account for the rapid increase of cell surface hydrophobicity at low aqueous concentrations of the surfactant, while the stable or decreased cell hydrophobicity was probably the consequence of multiple surfactant layer formation or hemimicelle accumulation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Center for Analysis and Testing, Hunan University for the work on rhamnolipid HPLC-MS analysis. The study was supported by the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University, the National 863 High Technologies Research Foundation of China (No. 2004AA649370), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program; No. 2005CB724203), the Natural Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (No.50425927, No.50225926), the China Natural Foundation (No.50678062), and the Doctoral Foundation of Ministry of Education of China, Fujian Technology Foundation for Creative Young Scholars (2007F3102).

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Correspondence to Guang Ming Zeng.

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Zhong, H., Zeng, G.M., Liu, J.X. et al. Adsorption of monorhamnolipid and dirhamnolipid on two Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains and the effect on cell surface hydrophobicity. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 79, 671–677 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-008-1461-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-008-1461-y

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