Editorial: Biosurfactants: New Insights in Their Biosynthesis, Production and Applications
Gloria Soberón‐Chávez, Rudolf Hausmann, Éric Déziel
Abstract
The surface-active properties of all the chemically diverse molecules that are defined as surfactants are essential for a wide variety of industrial applications, such as soaps and detergents, food products, cosmetics, agriculture, oil recovery and bioremediation. A small share of the surfactant market is comprised of biosurfactants (surfactants produced by different organisms, but we will focus on those produced by microorganisms), even though they have clear advantages over chemically synthesized surfactants in terms of their biodegradability, low toxicity and sustainability. This is mainly due to the lower production cost of chemically-produced surfactants and to important technical challenges in the large-scale production of biosurfactants, such as foaming during the fermentation process that are difficult to manage and cause biomass loss from the bioreactor. The aim of this Research Topic "Biosurfactants: New Insights in Their Synthesis, Production and Applications" is to present an overview of different perspective and the latest research innovations coming from diverse scientific disciplines that address these fascinating molecules through a multidisciplinary approach. Thus, it comprises different approaches on the synthesis (including metabolic engineering strategies), production (fermentation and downstream processing) and applications of several types of biosurfactants. This Research Topic includes 2 in-depth reviews, 4 minireviews and 15 original research articles, presenting a wide panorama of the state-of-the-art in the rapidly growing field of biosurfactants research.