Biological preparation and characterization of surfactant‐like peptides

Abstract Surfactant‐like peptides are a class of small molecule short peptides with surface activity designed independently by imitating the structural characteristics of natural lipid molecules. Surfactant‐like peptides have the advantages of no pollution to the environment, easy biodegradation, strong bacteriostasis, and nutrition, which accords with the development concept of the modern green industry. They are widely used in many fields such as cleaning, food, cosmetics, medicine. At present, such surfactants are mainly synthesized by expensive chemical methods. The efficient synthesis of surfactant‐like peptides by biological methods has become a significant research direction. This method is environmentally friendly and can achieve low‐cost and efficient production. In this study, three novel surfactant‐like peptides were designed and synthesized by biological methods and successfully expressed in vitro. By optimizing of the expression host, expression vector, and fermentation conditions, the optimal expression amount was finally obtained. In addition, these surfactant‐like peptides were found to have good surface activity and low critical micelle concentration. More importantly, they are pH‐responsive and can self‐assemble to form nanostructures in different solutions, which provides essential research value for the production of novel nanomaterials in the future. This study is the first to construct and express three novel surfactant‐like peptides by biological methods, which effectively reduce the production cost compared to chemical methods; and it was also found to have excellent surfactant properties. This provides the basis for large‐scale industrial production and application.