Optimization and characterization of a new lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by marine Brevibacterium aureum MSA13 in solid state culture

The biosurfactant production of a marine actinobacterium Brevibacterium aureum MSA13 was optimized using industrial and agro-industrial solid waste residues as substrates in solid state culture (SSC). Based on the optimization experiments, the biosurfactant production by MSA13 was increased to threefold over the original isolate under SSC conditions with pre-treated molasses as substrate and olive oil, acrylamide, FeCl3 and inoculums size as critical control factors. The strain B. aureum MSA13 produced a new lipopeptide biosurfactant with a hydrophobic moiety of octadecanoic acid methyl ester and a peptide part predicted as a short sequence of four amino acids including pro-leu-gly-gly. The biosurfactant produced by the marine actinobacterium MSA13 can be used for the microbially enhanced oil recovery processes in the marine environments. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.