Isolation of Yeasts from Bee bread of Honey Bees, Apis mellifera, and Evaluation of its Ability to Produce Sophorolipid Biosurfactant

Biosurfactants are amphipathic molecules with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties that allow them to reduce surface tension. Biosurfactants have several advantages over the chemical surfactants, such as lower toxicity, higher biodegradability and better environmental compatibility. A promising group of glycolipid biosurfactants are sophorolipids that are produced by a group of yeasts. So the aim of this study was isolation of yeasts from bee bread of honey bees. The samples were prepared from bee bread of honey bee, Apis mellifera. The yeasts were isolated on YMG culture medium. Hemolysis and oil spreading techniques were performed for screening of biosurfactant-producing isolates. The extracted biosurfactants were characterized by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). From a total of 35 isolated yeast strains, 10 isolates had positive oil spreading test. The HG12 isolate showed the highest level of oil spreading character.The TLC and FTIR examinations of the purified Glycolipid biosurfactant confirmed its structure as sophorolipid. This is the first report of production of a sophorolipid biosurfactant from yeast in Iran.