Genetic Regulation of Biosurfactant Production By Bacterial Isolates

Abstract

Biosurfactants are surface active agents of microbial origin. We have isolated four isolates and designated them as SK96, SK97, SK98 and SK320. SK320 showed maximum biosurfactant and esterase activities. Both the activities were found to be correlated to each other. We cloned three biosurfactant genes and designated the clones as pSKP, pSKP0 and pSKA. The clones showed enhanced biosurfactant and esterase activities. Esterase was the key protein associated with the lipopeptide complex. This observation is first to be reported for any Bacillus species.