Bioprospecting of rhamnolipids production and optimization by an oil-degrading Pseudomonas sp. S2WE isolated from freshwater lake

The present study revealed biosurfactants production by a novel oil-degrading Pseudomonas sp. S2WE isolated from hydrocarbon enriched water sample, where the genus Pseudomonas (48.65%) was dominated amongst several other genera. Biosurfactants produced by this strain showed the great potential for surface tension reduction (SFT) and emulsification. The extracted crude biosurfactants were characterized using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) and identified various mono-and di-rhamnolipids homologs from the mixture. Moreover, the lowest SFT 33.05 ± 0.1 mN/m and highest emulsification of 60.65 ± 0.64% were achieved from rhamnolipids produced from glycerol with urea. Compared to initial screening, almost (>87%) higher emulsification was observed. In addition, the biosurfactants were found highly stable at different environmental factors i.e. temperature (4 °C-121 °C), pH (3–10) and NaCl conc. (1–9%). The high stable rhamnolipids produced by new Pseudomonas sp. S2WE in this study could widely be used in enormous industrial as well as environmental applications.