Isolation, screening, and characterization of biosurfactant-producing microorganism that can biodegrade heavily polluted soil using molecular techniques

Abstract Biosurfactant has been identified as a natural biological compound that possesses the capacity to either build up around the fluid phases and generate on the surface of a microbial cell or be produced extracellularly. They possess hydrophilic moiety that contains an amino acid or, as a phosphate group, a carbohydrate, while the hydrophobic moiety contains a fatty acid carbon chain. This unique feature plays a significant role in minimizing surface tension and the interfacial that portends them for numerous environmental activities such as their wide utilization for enhancing oil recovery, management of residual hydrocarbon derived from ship bilge waste, biodegradation of aliphatic hydrocarbons, oil recovery, pumping of crude oil, and in rejuvenation of crude oil contaminant. Therefore, this chapter intends to provide detailed information on the application of novel molecular techniques that could be utilized for characterization of biosurfactant-producing microorganisms for ecorestoration of a heavily polluted environment.