Screening, identification and structural characterization of biosurfactant- producing bacteria isolated from oil contaminated field

In this study ten bacterial strains were isolated from oil contaminated soil in southwest of Iran. The isolated bacteria were selected by using different methods as drop collapse, oil spreading test, blood agar hemolysis, emulsification activity and surface tension. The biosurfactant which was produced as a primary metabolite by potent isolate associated with the growth of strain 2IR and showed ability to reduce surface tension of the medium to 32 mN/m. Acid precipitated biosurfactant has critical micelle concentration (CMC) of 120 mN/m. Isolated strain was identified by morphological, biochemical and partial 16SrRNA gene sequencing as Bacillus pumilus 2IR. Preliminary characterization revealed that the produced biosurfactant has a lipopeptide composition as determined by HPLC and FTIR. Also, 1H, nuclear magnetic resonance analysis confirmed it to be lipopeptide. Properties and characteristics of the biosurfactant produced by B. pumilus 2IR suggesting potential commercial application, such as enhance oil recovery, bioremediation, environment and food industries.This conference paper presented the Biosurfactant production from locally isolated bacterial isolate from oil contaminated soil in IRAN