Microbial bio-production of a recombinant stimuli-responsive biosurfactant

Biosurfactants have been the subject of recent interest as sustainable alternatives to petroleum-derived compounds in areas ranging from soil remediation to personal and health care. The production of naturally occurring biosurfactants depends on the presence of complex feed sources during microbial growth and requires multicomponent enzymes for synthesis within the cells. Conversely, designed peptide surfactants can be produced recombinantly in microbial systems, enabling the generation of improved variants by simple genetic manipulation. However, inefficient downstream processing is still an obstacle for the biological production of small peptides. We present the production of the peptide biosurfactant GAM1 in recombinant E. coli. Expression was performed in fusion to maltose binding protein using chemically defined minimal medium, followed by a single-step affinity capture and enzymatic cleavage using tobacco etch virus protease. Different approaches to the isolation of peptide after cleavage were investigated, with special emphasis on rapid and simple procedures. Solvent-, acid-, and heat-mediated precipitation of impurities were successfully applied as alternatives to post-cleavage chromatographic peptide purification, and gave peptide purities exceeding 90%. Acid precipitation was the method of choice, due to its simplicity and the high purification factor and recovery rate achieved here. The functionality of the bio-produced peptide was tested to ensure that the resulting peptide biosurfactant was both surface active and able to be triggered to switch between foam-stabilizing and foam-destabilizing states.