Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

The Ability of Some Pseudomonas Strains to Produce Biosurfactant

Amina Meliani and Ahmed Bensoltane

This study aims to identify the capacity of two fluorescent Pseudomonas plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria and one strain of P. aeruginosa to produce biosurfactants. The strains were grown in Mineral Salt Medium (MSM) with 1% (v/v) tapis gas oil as a sole carbon and energy source. Biosurfactant synthesis was monitored by measuring surface tension, emulsifying index (E24), drop-collapse and bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbons. The best strain, P. aeruginosa, was able to reduce the surface tension to 55 mNm-1 with an E24 of 25.29%. The hydrophobicity was below 30%, a significant decrease for P. aeruginosa was signaled. Bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbons assay results showed that, P. aeruginosa had the highest level of cell adhesion (25.4%), followed by P. fluorescens (22.90%) and P. putida (17.07%). Temperature of 30°C and pH 7 were found to be optimum. This study showed that these PGPR strains had the ability to biodegrade gas oil and concurrently produce biosurfactant.