Biosurfactant synthesis in the oil eater rhodococcus erythropolis MK1 strain

Oil pollution is a very serious problem in the world. There were numerous oil spills in the last three decades and had great impact on the environment. They caused damages in wildlife as well as in economy by cutting down the agriculture, fishing, and tourism. Surfactants are useful weapons in the war against oil pollution. They are suitable to clean oil tanks and pipes and they are useful to solublize animal fats in food industrial wastewater. Many bacteria can produce substantial amount of biosurfactants which can emulsify hydrophobic hydrocarbons, so that the native microflora can utilize the pollutants. An additional advantage of the biosurfactants over the synthetic surface active molecules is that these compounds are easily biodegradable. A special biosurfactant group is composed of mycolic acids which are basically a-alkyl, (3-hydroxy fatty acids. Mycolic acids are the most characteristic components of the cell wall of the so called mycolata bacterial group. This group belongs to the Actinomycetales and contains the genera Mycobacterium, Corynebacterium, Nocardia, Rhodococcus and others. We aimed to map the mycolic acid biosynthesis pathway in Rhodococcus erythropolis MK1 strain isolated by us from polluted soil. In first step, we sequenced the genome of our strain by SOLID™ next generation DNA sequencer. The reads were mapped on the R. erythropolis PR4 genome in the NCBI database. We searched for rhodococcal homologs of the known mycobacterial and corynebacterial genes involved in mycolic acid biosynthesis. We found conserved regions in the genome which are likely responsible for the biosynthesis of mycolic acids. The ongoing comparative whole genome transcript analysis will reveal the genes really necessary for the anabolism of mycolic acids