Biodegradable non-toxic surfactants of microbial origin are multifunctional preparations, which due to antimicrobial activity are promising for use in crop production to control phytopathogenic microorganisms. Studies on the prospects of using microbial surfactants to control the number of phytopathogenic microorganisms are conducted in three directions: laboratory studies of antimicrobial activity of surfactants in vitro, determination of the effect of surfactants on phytopathogens in vegetative experiments in the process of plants growing in a laboratory or greenhouse, post-harvest treatment of fruits and vegetables with solutions of microbial surfactants to extend their shelf life. The review presents literature data on antimicrobial activity of surfactants against phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi in vitro. Antimicrobial activity of surfactants is evaluated by three main parameters: minimum inhibitory concentration, zones of growth retardation of test cultures on agar media and inhibition of growth of test cultures on agar or liquid media. The vast majority of available publications relate to the antifungal activity of surfactant lipopeptides and rhamnolipids, while data on the effect of these microbial surfactants on phytopathogenic bacteria (representatives of the genera Ralstonia, Xanthomonas, Pseudomonas, Agrobacterium, Pectobacterium) are few. The researchers determined the antimicrobial activity of either total lipopeptides extracted with organic solvents from the culture broth supernatant, or individual lipopeptides (iturin, surfactin, fengycin, etc.) isolated from a complex of surfactants, or culture broth supernatant. Lipopeptides synthesized by members of the genus Bacillus exhibit antimicrobial activity on phytopathogenic fungi of the genera Alternaria, Verticillium, Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Botrytis, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Penicillium, Phytophora, Sclerotinia, Curvularia, Colletotrichum, etc. in sufficiently high concentrations. Thus, the minimum inhibitory concentrations of lipopeptides against phytopathogenic fungi are orders of magnitude higher (in average 0.04–8.0 mg/mL, or 40–8000 μg/mL) than against phytopathogenic bacteria (3–75 μg/mL). However, the antifungal activity of lipopeptidecontaining supernatants is not inferior by the efficiency to the activity of lipopeptides isolated from them, and therefore, to control the number of phytopathogenic fungi in crop production, the use of lipopeptidecontaining supernatants is more appropriate. Rhamnolipids synthesized by bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas are more effective antimicrobial agents comparing to lipopeptides: the minimum inhibitory concentrations of rhamnolipids against phytopathogenic fungi are 4–276 μg/mL, which is an order of magnitude lower than lipopeptides. In contrast to the data on the antifungal activity of rhamnolipids against phytopathogens, there are only a few reports in the literature on the effect of these surfactants on phytopathogenic bacteria, whilst the minimal inhibitory concentrations are quite high (up to 5000 μg/mL). The advantage of rhamnolipids as antimicrobial agents compared to lipopeptides is the high level of synthesis on cheap and available in large quantities industrial waste. Currently in the literature there is little information about the effect of surface-active sophorolipids of microbial origin on phytopathogenic fungi, and all these works are mainly about the antifungal activity of sophorolipids. We note that in contrast to surfactant lipopeptides and rhamnolipids, the effective concentration of most sophorolipids, which provides the highest antimicrobial activity against phytopathogens, is higher and reaches 10,000 μg/mL.
Two new cyclopeptides from the co-culture broth of two marine mangrove fungi and their antifungal activity