Extracellular accumulation of mannosylerythritol lipids by a strain of Candida antarctica.

A yeast strain, isolated from the exudate of a tree, accumulated biosurfactants abundantly when grownon soybean oil as the sole carbon source.Thebiosurfactants were found to be a mixture of 4 mannosylerythritol lipids, including two new mannosylerythritol lipids as major components.The major components, which amounted to about 80 % of the total lipids, were determined to be 4-0-(di-0-acetyl-di-O-alkanoyl-/?-D-mannopyranosyl)-erythritol and 4-0-(mono-0-acetyl-di-0-alkanoyl-/?-D-mannopyranosyl)-erythritol.The yeast strain was identified as Candida antarctica (Goto et al.) Kurtzman et al.