Just like their chemical counterparts, biosurfactants such as sophorolipids find applications in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and cleaning industries. Furthermore, sophorolipids display specific biological properties. Biosurfactants produced by fermentation offer a worthy alternative to traditional surfactants, which are typically derived from non-renewable petrochemical resources and may cause environmental problems due to their ecotoxicity and poor biodegradability.
The large majority of the research on sophorolipids is conducted on optimization of the feeding strategy and fermentation parameters, while the clarification of the biosynthetic pathway remains mainly neglected. Yet, insight in the biochemical process is a fundamental prerequisite for profound understanding, controlling and engineering of the production process. Therefore, we de novo sequenced the full genome of the yeast and set up extensive transcriptomics and proteomics experiments. This among others resulted in the identification of the six sophorolipid core enzymes and research is ongoing on their regulation and expression profiles.
Finally, now the sophorolipid biochemical pathway is identified and characterized, genetic engineering strategies can be applied in order to produce new-to-nature biosurfactants with novel properties, in this way broadening the application potential of biosurfactants. Several examples will be discussed.