Biosurfactants from marine microorganisms

The marine biosphere represents a yet underexploited natural source of bioactive com-pounds, mainly of microbial origin. Among them, biosurfactants (BSs) are functional molecules, which are attracting a great interest due to their biocompatibility, versatility, and applications in several biotechnological fields. BSs are surface active amphipathic compounds, containing both a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic moiety, which are grouped in low (glycolipids and lipopeptides) or high molecular weight (polymeric complexes) compounds. A number of environmental factors such as pH, salinity, temperature, and nutrient availability can affect microbial BS production. Marine microorganisms with dif-ferent phylogenetic affiliations and isolated from several marine habitats (e.g., seawater, sediments, and higher organisms) worldwide (spanning from the Mediterranean Sea to Antarctica) have been reported as surfactant producers. However, most of the marine microbial world remains still unexplored. The present chapter aims at giving a general overview on the recent advances about BSs of marine origin, in order to enhance the knowledge inherent their production, chemical characterization and identification, inter-esting biological properties, and potential biotechnological applications