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Sustainable trehalose lipid production by Rhodotorula sp.: a promising bio-based alternative

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Abstract

Global environmental concerns drive research toward the development of new eco-friendly compounds to replace pollutant chemicals. This study focuses on optimizing the production of trehalose lipids (TLs), which are glycolipid biosurfactants (BS) with various applications like antimicrobial or surface tension reduction. New microorganism sources, growth conditions, medium composition, purification conditions, and physicochemical properties of TLs are studied. Addressing a microscale approach, TLs production was successfully achieved using Rhodotorula sp. and Rhodococcus erythropolis to compare, with different media compositions including glucose-based and salt media supplemented with glycerol, glucose, n-hexadecane, n-dodecane. Liquid–liquid extraction using ethyl acetate and methanol was employed for compound extraction, followed by characterization using analytical methods such as Thin layer chromatography (TLC), High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and UHPLC. The produced TLs exhibited a minimum surface tension of 47 mN/m and a critical micellar concentration of 4.4 mg/mL. This study also identified Rhodotorula sp. as a new sustainable producer of TLs with improved productivity.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed in this study are included in the published manuscript or its supplementary information file.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Professor Rosário Bronze for the HPLC-MS/MS support on the identification of the different compounds.

Funding

This research was funded by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the project UID/DTP/04138/2021 and UID/BIO/04565/2020 and for funding the project REDE/1518/REM/2005.

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Author notes

  1. Sara Lopes, Eva Fahr, and João Costa have contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sara Lopes, Eva Fahr, João Costa, Andreia B. Silva, M. Manuel Lopes, Célia Faustino & Maria H. L. Ribeiro

  2. Research Institute for Medicines (iMed.ULisboa), Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003, Lisbon, Portugal

    Andreia B. Silva, Célia Faustino & Maria H. L. Ribeiro

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicines, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universidade Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003, Lisbon, Portugal

    Andreia B. Silva, Célia Faustino & Maria H. L. Ribeiro

Authors
  1. Sara Lopes
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  2. Eva Fahr
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  3. João Costa
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  7. Maria H. L. Ribeiro
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Contributions

MHR and CF conceived and designed research. SL, EF, JL and CF conducted experiments, MML contributed new microorganism and growth assays. SL, EF, JL, CF and MHR analyzed data. SL, EF, JL and CF and MHR wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria H. L. Ribeiro.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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SL declares that she has no conflict of interest; EF declares that she has no conflict of interest; JL declares that he has no conflict of interest; MML declares that she has no conflict of interest; CF declares that she has no conflict of interest; MHR declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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Lopes, S., Fahr, E., Costa, J. et al. Sustainable trehalose lipid production by Rhodotorula sp.: a promising bio-based alternative. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 47, 145–157 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-023-02949-3

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