Microstructure and molecular vibration of mannosylerythritol lipids from Pseudozyma yeast strains

This work highlights microstructure and molecular vibration of mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) from Pseudozyma aphidis B1 and Pseudozyma hubeiensis TS18 strains collected from brown algae and mangrove sediments. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows the elongated structures with polar budding in the cells of B1 and TS18 yeast strains. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) identifies large lipid bodies that contain MELs confirmed by the anthrone test and thin layer chromatography. The HRTEM also reveals unknown electron dense inclusions. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) was used to analysis molecular vibrations of cells, MEL mixtures, and purified MELs (A, B, and C) extracted from the B1 and TS18 cells. The peak analysis of Raman spectra suggests a higher level of saturation per fatty acid chain in MEL-B in both B1 and TS18 cells. This work demonstrates that the out-of-plane bending vibrations of the CH bonds in the range of 840−940 cm−1 can serve an efficient indicator for detecting MEL-A, -B, and -C.