Antiadhesive action of a marine microbial surfactant

The antiadhesive action of a lipopeptide biosurfactant from a marine bacterium was investigated. The effect of cultivation conditions on the adhesion property of few bacterial strains was studied. It was observed that the static cultures showed greater adhesion due to scarcity of oxygen. The biosurfactant upon surface conditioning was found to be effective in removal of the microbial adhesion at a concentration as low as 0.1 g L-1. The percentages of inhibition of adhesion against different test bacterial strains ranged from 15 to 89% using 0.1-10 g L-1 of purified biosurfactant. These percentages of adhesion inhibition were found to be significantly higher than the previously reported values. The antiadhesive efficacy of the biosurfactant was also evident from confocal laser scanning microscopy studies. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.