The hydrophobicity of the support in solid state culture affected the production of hydrophobins from Lecanicillium lecanii

• We produced hydrophobins from Lecanicillium lecanii in solid substrate culture.
• Hydrophobicity of supports of solid substrate culture influenced surface activities of classes I and II HfbL.
• Purity of chitin as substrate increase the HfbL production.
• Class I HfbL only was produced on hydrophobic support and presented the highest surface activity.
• Class II HfbLs were produced on hydrophobic and hydrophilic supports.

Lecanicillium lecanii has been successfully employed to produce hydrophobin-like proteins (HfbL) in solid state and submerged cultures varying the type of solid inert support. This study shows the results on the effect of hydrophilic Perlite and hydrophobic Polyurethane inert supports in solid state cultures for production of HfbLs by L. lecanii. The hydrophobicity of the support employed in solid state cultures influenced the yields and surface activities of the class I and class II HfbLs produced by L. lecanii. Class I HfbL was only produced using the hydrophobic polyurethane foam support, showing high surface activity that reduced ca. 50% hydrophobicity of Teflon, whereas class II HfbLs were produced on both polyurethane foam and perlite supports, and they reduced ca. 50% the surface tension of water and ca. 25% reduction of the hydrophobicity of Teflon.

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