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Genomic and chemical insights into biosurfactant production by the mangrove-derived strain Bacillus safensis CCMA-560

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology volume 99, pages 3155–3167 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Many Bacillus species can produce biosurfactant, although most of the studies on lipopeptide production by this genus have been focused on Bacillus subtilis. Surfactants are broadly used in pharmaceutical, food and petroleum industry, and biological surfactant shows some advantages over the chemical surfactants, such as less toxicity, production from renewable, cheaper feedstocks and development of novel recombinant hyperproducer strains. This study is aimed to unveil the biosurfactant metabolic pathway and chemical composition in Bacillus safensis strain CCMA-560. The whole genome of the CCMA-560 strain was previously sequenced, and with the aid of bioinformatics tools, its biosurfactant metabolic pathway was compared to other pathways of closely related species. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and high-resolution TOF mass spectrometry (MS) were used to characterize the biosurfactant molecule. B. safensis CCMA-560 metabolic pathway is similar to other Bacillus species; however, some differences in amino acid incorporation were observed, and chemical analyses corroborated the genetic results. The strain CCMA-560 harbours two genes flanked by srfAC and srfAD not present in other Bacillus spp., which can be involved in the production of the analogue gramicidin. FTIR and MS showed that B. safensis CCMA-560 produces a mixture of at least four lipopeptides with seven amino acids incorporated and a fatty acid chain with 14 carbons, which makes this molecule similar to the biosurfactant of Bacillus pumilus, namely, pumilacidin. This is the first report on the biosurfactant production by B. safensis, encompassing the investigation of the metabolic pathway and chemical characterization of the biosurfactant molecule.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP for financial support (Process numbers 2010/15519-3, 2011/50809-5 and 2011/50243-1). Genome sequencing, correction and assembly were funded by CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences. We are thankful to Prof. Dr Anita J. Marsaioli and Prof. Dr Anete Pereira de Souza for sharing the genome data of B. safensis CFA-06. The authors thank Prof. Dr Oswaldo Luiz Alves for his valorous assistance with the FTIR analysis.

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Affiliations

  1. Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology and Agriculture (CPQBA), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Av. Alexandre Cazelatto, 999, Campinas, SP, 13148-218, Brazil

    Daniela Ferreira Domingos & Valéria Maia de Oliveira

  2. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520-8286, USA

    Andreia Fonseca de Faria

  3. ThoMSon Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil

    Renan de Souza Galaverna & Marcos Nogueira Eberlin

  4. CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics, North Ryde, NSW, Australia, 2113

    Paul Greenfield

  5. Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, EMBRAPA Environment, Jaguariúna, São Paulo, Brazil

    Tiago Domingues Zucchi & Itamar Soares Melo

  6. CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences, North Ryde, NSW, 2113, Australia

    Nai Tran-Dinh & David Midgley

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  1. Daniela Ferreira Domingos
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  2. Andreia Fonseca de Faria
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  3. Renan de Souza Galaverna
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Correspondence to Daniela Ferreira Domingos.

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Domingos, D.F., de Faria, A.F., de Souza Galaverna, R. et al. Genomic and chemical insights into biosurfactant production by the mangrove-derived strain Bacillus safensis CCMA-560. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 3155–3167 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6377-8

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Keywords

  • Pumilacidin
  • Metabolic pathway
  • Chemical characterization
  • Surfactant
  • Bacillus