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Biosurfactants: Secondary Metabolites Involved in the Process of Bioremediation and Biofilm Removal

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Abstract

The search for environmentally friendly methods to remove persistent substances such as organic pollutants and sessile communities such as biofilms that severely affect the environment and human health resulted in biosurfactant discovery. Owing to their low level of toxicity and high biodegradability, biosurfactants are increasingly preferred to be used for removal of pollutants from nature. These amphipathic molecules can be synthesized inexpensively, employing cheap substrates such as agricultural and industrial wastes. Recent progress has been made in identifying various biosurfactants that can be used to remove organic pollutants and harmful microbial aggregates, as well as novel microbial strains that produce these surface-active molecules to survive in a hydrocarbon-rich environment. This review focuses on the identification and understanding the role of biosurfactants and the microorganisms involved in the removal of biofilms and remediation of xenobiotics and various types of hydrocarbons such as crude oil, aromatic hydrocarbons, n-alkanes, aliphatic hydrocarbons, asphaltenes, naphthenes, and other petroleum products. This property of biosurfactant is very important as biofilms are of great concern due to their impact on the environment, public health, and industries worldwide. This work also includes several advanced molecular methods that can be used to enhance the production of biosurfactants by the microorganisms studied.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Department of Microbiology, Sikkim University, for providing the computational infrastructure and central library facilities for procuring references and plagiarism analysis (URKUND: Plagiarism Detection Software).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Sushruta Bhadra and Dixita Chettri contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Sikkim University, Gangtok, 737102, Sikkim, India

    Sushruta Bhadra, Dixita Chettri & Anil Kumar Verma

Authors
  1. Sushruta Bhadra
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  2. Dixita Chettri
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  3. Anil Kumar Verma
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Contributions

AKV conceived of the presented idea. SB and DC discussed every topic and wrote the review. AKV provided critical feedback, supervised the study, and helped in shape the review.

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Correspondence to Anil Kumar Verma.

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Bhadra, S., Chettri, D. & Kumar Verma, A. Biosurfactants: Secondary Metabolites Involved in the Process of Bioremediation and Biofilm Removal. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 195, 5541–5567 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-022-03951-3

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