Lipopetides, an attractive class of microbial surfactants.

Microorganisms produce a broad spectrum of biosurfactants which receive increasing attention for industrial, biotechnological and therapeutical applications. Lipopeptides are a class of microbial surfactants which are of particular interest because of their wide range of activities. A short survey is given on their occurrence, structure and function. Various strains of Bacillus subtilis produce a family of lipopeptides which are powerful antibiotics with antifungal activities. A representative of these agents is surfactin which is one of the most efficient biosurfactants so far known. In has been purified by several chromatographic procedures. In vivo incorporation experiments with 14C-labelled precursor amino acids have been performed. It is shown that the biosynthesis of this agent appears in the logarithmic phase of bacterial growth and continues over a wide range of the cell cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]