Team:BNDS China/Implementation
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Title
Proposed implementation
Rhamnolipid is a biosurfactant that has exceptional chemical and biological properties
produced by microorganisms . As a non-toxic and biodegradable material, rhamnolipid has
numerous applications in people’s daily lives, including the petroleum sector, the food industry,
and the medical area.
Since the existing rhamnolipid synthesis mechanism in P. aeruginosa cannot fulfill the high
demand, our project plan to improve the rhamnolipid production pathway in E. coli using genetic
engineering, and reapplied the new pathway back to P. aeruginosa.
1. Oil industries
2. Farmers
3. Bakeries
Identification of end-users
As our project can be defined as “a modified
metabolic pathway for rhamnolipids synthesis using
directed evolution”, the end-users of our project can
be classified as the following three parts:
Figure 1. oil industry factories and crude oil extraction
In the oiling industry, rhamnolipid
works as a surfactant, lowering the
interfacial tension of oil and water.
After compounding, the oil-displacing
agent’s oil-water interfacial tension can
reach 10-3mN/m (Jirui et al., 2002),
enhancing oil displacement efficiency.
High-yield and high-efficiency
rhamnolipid synthesis may successfully
filter and extract crude oil at low prices
if the oil extraction industry
implements our technology across the
whole production chain. In this project,
our human practice cooperated with
Sinopec Group. Among them, Sinopec
Group provided us with a strain of P.
aeruginosa for us to perform gene
editing, and we will send our optimized
new P. aeruginosa back to Sinopec
Group for practical application testing,
which can effectively reflect our
integration of the project with real life.
More details can be found in the
Human Practice page.
Overview
Envisioning the implementation
In the food manufacturing
industry, the use of rhamnolipids
to improve the stability of dough
and the volume of baked products
has played a significant role.
Bakeries can use rhamnolipid as a
bulking agent to increase the
baking volume, which can make
the texture of the bread softer and
fluffy, as well the taste. For baked
products, increased dough stability
means improved shockresistance,
which is important for the process
of using machines to make bread.
Rhamnolipids can be applied on crops,
vegetables, and fruits to promote growth
and aid in nutrient absorption, with no
adverse effects on humans or animals.
Rhamnolipids could be used as a
humectant in foliar fertilizers in the future.
Instead of the hydrophobic waxy layer,
their hydrophilic bases can extend into the
fertilizer solution to form a directed
adsorption membrane, maximizing the
nutrients of the fertilizer absorbed and
utilized. Furthermore, it has the potential
to improve the alkaline soil environment.
Rhamnolipid is an excellent addition for
alkaline soil improvement. After all, under
alkaline conditions, Rh can ionize Rh- and H
+ and interact with OH- in alkaline soil to
neutralize and improve its alkalinity.
Safety Concern
In terms of the safety and prospective
applications of the compounds, all of our
goods should be thoroughly sterilized and
purified to remove endotoxin before
leaving our laboratory. Furthermore, in our
project, because P. eruginosa is used as a
Biosafety Level 2 organism, all laboratory
operations related with P. eruginosa should
be performed in the Biosafety Level 2 cabin,
which means there will be no
biocontainment issues.
Figure 3. rhamnolipid pathway in P. aeruginosa (Chatterjee, 2020)
1. Hou, Jirui, Yue, Xiang’an, Zhang, Shufen, and Jinzong Yang. “Restudy of Main Factors of Effects
on ASP Flood and Expansion of Capillary Theory in Heterogeneous Reservoirs.” Paper presented
at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, October
2002. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/77800-MS
2. Chatterjee, Paulami & Sass, Gabriele & Swietnicki, Wieslaw & Stevens, David. (2020). Review of
Potential Pseudomonas Weaponry, Relevant to the Pseudomonas–Aspergillus Interplay, for the
Mycology Community. Journal of Fungi. 6. 81. 10.3390/jof6020081.
Reference
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