{"id":5381,"date":"2011-07-29T12:26:25","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T16:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=5381"},"modified":"2011-07-29T17:55:40","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T21:55:40","slug":"surfactants-discovered-among-naturally-occurring-yeasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=5381","title":{"rendered":"Surfactants Discovered Among Naturally Occurring Yeasts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Starmella<\/a>
Starmella yeast cells (Agricultural Research Service\/USDA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scientists with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Servic<\/a>e in Peoria, Illinois have found naturally-grown yeasts that can produce molecules with surfactant properties. Surfactants are wetting agents that lower a liquid’s surface tension, used in a variety of consumer and industrial products, and normally derived from petroleum.<\/p>\n

Surfactants work<\/a> by enabling the cleaning solution to fully wet the surface being cleaned so that dirt can be readily loosened and removed. They then can clean greasy, oily, particulate-, protein-, and carbohydrate-based stains. Surfactants can also help remove dirt and in keep them emulsified, suspended, and dispersed so they don’t settle back onto the surface being cleaned.<\/p>\n

ARS microbiologist Cletus Kurtzman and colleagues have since last year studied yeasts in the genus Starmella<\/em> that produce sophorolipids, which are surfactant-like molecules. Their study comprises the largest survey yet of this kind of yeasts.<\/p>\n

Kurtzman’s team used phylogenetics — hereditary molecular analysis — and mass-spectrometry to screen 19 of the 40 known Starmella<\/em> yeasts for their ability to produce sophorolipids. The phylogenetics, in particular, enabled the team to determine which members produce sophorolipids based on shared gene sequences for the trait.<\/p>\n

The analysis highlighted certain Candida<\/em> species that were shown to be asexual members of the genus Starmerella<\/em>. Previously, only a few Candida<\/em> yeast species, such as C. bombicola<\/em> and C. apicola<\/em>, had been shown to make the sophorolipids.<\/p>\n

The researchers took advantage of ARS’s Culture Collection<\/a> — containing some 95,000 strains of actinomycetes, bacteria, molds, and yeasts — housed in Peoria to broaden the inquiry. The researchers cultured the yeasts with glucose and oleic acid. They then measured the yeasts’ sophorolipid production levels over a 24- to 168-hour period using mass-spectrometry analysis, which can identify compounds based on their unique molecular weights.<\/p>\n

They found as expected, C. bombicola<\/em> and C. apicola<\/em> boasted the highest sophorolipid yields, but also turned up three other high-producing yeasts, including a new Candida<\/em> species.<\/p>\n

Read more: Genetic Modification Leads to Longer Tomato Shelf Life<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Peoria, Illinois have found naturally-grown yeasts that can produce molecules with surfactant properties. Surfactants are wetting agents that lower a liquid’s surface tension, used in a variety of consumer and industrial products, and normally derived from petroleum. Surfactants work by enabling the cleaning solution to fully wet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[92,55,64,105,58],"class_list":["post-5381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-products","tag-agriculture","tag-genomics","tag-life-sciences","tag-physical-sciences","tag-usda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5397,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions\/5397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}