Analysis of cell wall hydrophobicity
The cell wall hydrophobicity of the cultivated cells was determined using a modified microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) assay (Kahar et al., 2022; Van Mulders et al., 2009). After deflocculation with 50 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA, pH 7) and resuspension in 2 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride solution, the samples were measured at 600 nm using a spectrophotometer (UVmini-1240, Shimadzu, Japan) to obtainA0 . Subsequently, 0.4 mL of octane was added to the solutions, followed by vortexing at maximum speed for 60 sec. After allowing the mixture to stand at room temperature for 10 min, the water phase containing nonhydrophobic cells was separated and measured at 600 nm to obtain A1 . The cell wall hydrophobicity was then calculated using the following formula:
\begin{equation} Cell\ wall\ hydrophobicity\ =\ \left(1-\frac{A_{1}}{A_{0}}\right)\cdot 100\nonumber \\ \end{equation}