Interactions of natural rhamnolpids produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa with plant model membranes

It is well known that chemical pesticides have harmful effects on human health and environment. In this context, the interest for alternative products such as biopesticides is increasing. Among them, elicitors act on the plants by inducing systemic resistance against diseases caused by fungal, viral, bacterial agents and insects. Rhamnolipids are surface active molecules produced mainly by various strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These secondary metabolites are composed of one to three fatty acids with various chain lengths linked through a glycosidic bond to one or two rhamnose moieties. The fatty acids are linked together through an ester bond. These molecules have shown several biological activities including plant defense stimulation. It has been suggested that this elicitor activity could be related to an interaction of rhamnolipids with the lipid bilayer of the plant plasma membrane (PPM) and lead to its destabilization, which can activate the plant defense signaling pathways. In this context, interactions of two rhamnolipids (Rha-C10-C10 and Rha-Rha-C10-C10) with biomimetic membranes of PPM such as Langmuir monolayers and multilayers were investigated using biophysical and in silico approaches.