Monday, August 11, 2008
P98

Biosurfactant-producing yeasts are widely distributed in different vegetables and fruits

Masaaki Konishi, Tomotake Morita, Tokuma Fukuoka, Tomohiro Imura, and Dai Kitamoto. Research Institute for Innovations in Sustainable Chemistry, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), AIST Central 5-2, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

  The isolation of biosurfactant-producing yeasts from food sources was attained with a new drop collapse method, in order to evaluate the feasibility of using biosurfactants in food and related industries. Based on the high-throughput method, forty-eight strains of yeasts were successfully isolated from different vegetables and fruits, especially from the leaves of vegetables belonging to the Brassica family. Based on the analysis of rDNA sequences, these strains were tentatively identified as Pseudozyma yeasts. Interestingly, they all produced mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) as representative of glycolipid biosurfactants from olive oil at yields ranging from 8.5 to 24.3 g l-1. Moreover, a yeast strain isolated from shiso (Perilla frutescens) selectively produced MEL-B, while other isolated strains produced a mixture of MEL-A, -B, and -C. Biosurfactant-producing yeasts are thus likely to be widely distributed in food sources. The present results may partly support the safety of biosurfactants and facilitate a wide range of applications for them.

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