Lipopeptides from Emphasis Type="Italic"Bacillus

Authors: Ria Rautela Anil Kumar Singh Abha Shukla Swaranjit Singh Cameotra

Publish Date: 2014/03/13

Volume: 105, Issue: 5, Pages: 809-821

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Abstract

The ability of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans to reversibly switch between different morphological forms and establish biofilms is crucial for establishing infection Targeting phenotypic plasticity and biofilm formation in C albicans represents a new concept for antifungal drug discovery The present study evaluated the influence of cyclic lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain AR2 on C albicans biofilms The biosurfactant was characterized as a mixture of iturin and fengycin by MALDITOF and amino acid analysis The biosurfactant exhibited concentration dependent growth inhibition and fungicidal activity The biosurfactant at subminimum growth inhibition concentration decreased cell surface hydrophobicity hindered germ tube formation and reduced the mRNA expression of hyphaespecific gene HWP1 and ALS3 without exhibiting significant growth inhibition The biosurfactants inhibited biofilm formation in the range of 46–100  depending upon the concentration and Candida strains The biosurfactant treatment dislodged 25–100  of preformed biofilm from polystyrene plates The biosurfactant retained its antifungal and antibiofilm activity even after exposure to extreme temperature By virtue of the ability to inhibit germ tube and biofilm formation two important traits of C albicans involved in establishing infection lipopeptides from strain AR2 may represent a potential candidate for developing heat stable antiCandida drugs

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