Identification and characterization of biosurfactants produced by the Arctic bacterium Pseudomonas putida BD2

One hundred and thirty bacterial strains, isolated from Arctic soil on the Svalbard Archipelago, were screened for biosurfactant production. Among them, an isolate identified as Pseudomonas putida BD2 was selected as a potential biosurfactant-producer based on the surface/interfacial activity of the culture supernatant. The ability of the strain to produce simultaneously phosphatidylethanolamines and rhamnolipid, using glucose as a sole carbon source, was demonstrated. The rhamnolipid Rha-Rha-C10-C10 and two homologs of phosphatidylethanolamine were extracted from cell-free supernatant of P. putida BD2 culture with ethyl acetate and identified by UPLC–MS analysis. For Rha-Rha-C10-C10 the surface tension decreased from 72 to 31 mN/m and the critical micelle concentration was 0.130 mg/mL. The Rha-Rha-C10-C10 was able to form stable aggregates (80–121 nm). Pretreatment of a polystyrene surface with 0.5 mg/mL rhamnolipid inhibited bacterial adhesion by 43–79% and that of the pathogenic fungal species C. albicans by 89–90%. The same concentration of phosphatidylethanolamines inhibited bacterial adhesion by 23–72% and that of C. albicans by 96–98%. To our knowledge, this is the first report where one type rhamnolipid and two homologs of phospholipid biosurfactants were produced by P. putida isolated from Arctic soil.