Biopolymers

Xanthan Gum

Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide synthesized by bacteria of the genus Xanthomonas, and it has various industrial applications, including in the production of food, cosmetics, and petroleum extraction, among others. There is no domestic production of this compound in Brazil, which means the country still relies on large-scale imports of the biopolymer.

Currently, the development of xanthan gum production processes has focused on optimizing factors such as culture media, operational conditions, and technologies for compound recovery. However, a key part of this process is the development of optimized strains. In this regard, in collaboration with Professors Marcelo Ribeiro (DEQ/UFSCar) and Maria Teresa Novo-Mansur (DGE/UFSCar), we identified, through bioinformatics analyses, genetic targets with potential to optimize xanthan gum production by X. campestris.

Based on the in silico analyses, genetically modified strains were constructed and confirmed the predictions of the model used. Currently, additional studies are underway in our laboratory to evaluate the performance of the best strains under different process conditions.