Synergies between surfactants and proteins are found everywhere in everyday life. Beneficial interactions are exploited in fields such as food processing, pharmaceutical production, and laundry, leading to better products and lower energy consumption. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement regarding sustainability. Here, biosurfactants (BS) are an attractive alternative to petrochemical surfactants. Insights into BS-protein interactions can help replacing traditional surfactants with BS and uncover new opportunities. Here, we review recent work on proteins' interactions with BS, with focus on the self-assembly of protein:BS complexes and BS’ effects on enzymatic activity. Generally, interactions are milder than those with traditional ionic surfactants, leading to modest effects on protein structure and self-assembly, while enzymatic inhibition is generally observed above BS' critical micelle concentration. Mild interactions between proteins and BS show promise in forming functional complexes with proteins, however, further studies are required to understand and minimize the detrimental effects that do occur.

表面活性剂和蛋白质之间的协同作用在日常生活中随处可见。食品加工、药品生产和洗衣等领域利用有益的相互作用，生产出更好的产品并降低能耗。尽管如此，在可持续性方面仍有改进的空间。在这里，生物表面活性剂（BS）是石化表面活性剂的有吸引力的替代品。对 BS-蛋白质相互作用的深入了解有助于用 BS 取代传统表面活性剂并发现新的机会。在这里，我们回顾了蛋白质与 BS 相互作用的最新研究，重点关注蛋白质：BS 复合物的自组装以及 BS 对酶活性的影响。一般来说，相互作用比传统离子表面活性剂的相互作用更温和，对蛋白质结构和自组装的影响较小，而酶抑制通常在 BS 的临界胶束浓度以上观察到。蛋白质和 BS 之间的温和相互作用显示出与蛋白质形成功能复合物的希望，然而，需要进一步的研究来了解和最小化确实发生的有害影响。