Abstract
Highly hydrophobic compounds like petroleum and their byproducts, once released into the environment, can persist indefinitely by virtue of their ability to resist microbial degradation, ultimately paving the path to severe environmental pollution. Likewise, the accumulation of toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, chromium, etc., in the surroundings poses an alarming threat to various living organisms. To remediate the matter in question, the applicability of a biosurfactant produced from the mangrove bacterium Bacillus pumilus NITDID1 (Accession No. KY678446.1) is reported here. The structural characterization of the produced biosurfactant revealed it to be a lipopeptide and has been identified as pumilacidin through FTIR, NMR, and MALDI-TOF MS. The critical micelle concentration of pumilacidin was 120 mg/L, and it showed a wide range of stability in surface tension reduction experiments under various environmental conditions and exhibited a high emulsification index of as much as 90%. In a simulated setup of engine oil-contaminated sand, considerable oil recovery (39.78%) by this biosurfactant was observed, and upon being added to a microbial consortium, there was an appreciable enhancement in the degradation of the used engine oil. As far as the heavy metal removal potential of biosurfactant is concerned, as much as 100% and 82% removal was observed for lead and cadmium, respectively. Thus, in a nutshell, the pumilacidin produced from Bacillus pumilus NITDID1 holds promise for multifaceted applications in the field of environmental remediation.
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The authors confirm that the data supporting the study’s finding are included in the article and its supplementary materials. 16S rRNA gene sequence are available in NCBI database.
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Acknowledgements
Authors thank NIT Durgapur for AAS and TG analysis, Xcelris Labs Ltd, Ahmadabad for microbial identification, Royal Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., Secunderabad for GC-FAME analysis, Bose Institute, Kolkata for MALDI-TOF and FTIR analysis, IIT Kharagpur for using tensiometer instrument, TCG life sciences Pvt Ltd, Kolkata for 1H NMR analysis and IISER Kolkata for GC analysis. We also thank Dr. Sudipa Mondal for helping us with the analysis of characterization data.
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AD performed all the experiments, initial data analysis and prepared the initial draft of the manuscript. SS carried out major data analysis, figure and graph preparation and revised the draft manuscript. PG performed sub-experiment under Phyto-toxicity assay, revised and edited the final version of the manuscript. ID carried out isolation and identification of bacteria. DD and SC supervised the work and carried out review and editing of final draft. All authors read and consented on the manuscript.
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Dasgupta, A., Saha, S., Ganguli, P. et al. Characterization of pumilacidin, a lipopeptide biosurfactant produced from Bacillus pumilus NITDID1 and its prospect in bioremediation of hazardous pollutants. Arch Microbiol 205, 274 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-023-03619-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-023-03619-4