Rhamnolipids in perspective: gene regulatory pathways, metabolic engineering, production and technological forecasting

Rhamnolipids have emerged as a very promising class of biosurfactants in the last decades, exhibiting properties of great interest in several industrial applications, and have represented a suitable alternative to chemically-synthesized surfactants. This class of biosurfactants has been extensively studied in recent years, aiming at their large-scale production based on renewable resources, which still require high financial costs. Development of non-pathogenic, high-producing strains has been the focus of a number of studies involving heterologous microbial hosts as platforms. However, the intricate gene regulation network controlling rhamnolipid biosynthesis represents a challenge to metabolic engineering and remains to be further understood and explored. This article provides an overview of the biosynthetic pathways and the main gene regulatory factors involved in rhamnolipid production within Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the prototypal producing species. In addition, we provide a perspective view into the main strategies applied to metabolic engineering and biotechnological production.