ABSTRACT
The marine environment is one of Earth’s most valuable and underexploited natural resources, especially from a microbial perspective. Marine biosurfactants (BSs) are bioactive compounds for multiple purposes that have generated great interest regarding their versatility, biocompatibility and many biotechnological applications. Active amphipathic BS structures are classified into high (polymeric complexes) or low (glycolipids and lipopeptides) molecular weight compounds. Direct and indirect methods are used for detection of BSs produced by marine microbes. Factors affecting microbial BS production such as pH, salinity, temperature and nutrient availability are tested to improve the produced BS’s potency. Marine microbial BSs are involved in two major fields of applications: (1) bioremediation and industry and (2) biomedical objectives. This chapter aims to give an overview of marine microbes producing BSs, identification and chemical characterization of marine BSs and their interesting biological properties and their potential biotechnological applications.
