Team:Panama

Rhamnolipids are naturally occurring glycolipids produced by the Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Rhamnolipids have many applications because of their natural biosurfactant, emulsifying, fungicidal, antibiotic and pharmaceutical properties. Rhamnolipids can also operate in extreme conditions such as high temperature, pH and salinity. Rhamnolipids have low toxicity and are biodegradable compared to their synthetic chemical counterparts. A rhamnolipid is composed of a rhamnose sugar molecule and a b-hydroxyalkanoic acid. The rhamnolipids are almost exclusively produced by pathogenic microorganisms. For this reason we propose the non-pathogenic nature of E.coli as an attractive candidate for commercial rhamnolipid production by assembling our rhlAB gene into a BioBrick using synthetic biology to engineer this new rhlAB producing bacteria for human benefit.