The bacterial genus Serratia can produce a wide variety of biosurfactants, such as serrawettins, rubiwettins and rhamnolipids. Serrawettins is a lipopeptide biosurfactant synthesized by Serratia marcescens.Serrawettins can be further classified into serrawettin W1 serrawettin W2 and serrawettin W3, depending on the amino acid or peptide composition in the molecule. Serrawettin W1 is a cyclic lactone made up of L-Ser and yS-hydroxy fatty acids (C8-C14),and usually associated with prodigiosin.Serrawettin W2 is a cyclic lactone composed of pentapeptide and S-hydroxy fatty acids (C8-C10). While the exact chemical composition and synthetic mechanism of serrawettin W3 has yet to be elucidated, all three serrawettins have good surface activity,to reduce the surface tension of water to 32.2,33.9 and 28.8 mN/m, respectively. Serrawettins also has antimicrobial and antitumor activities. This article briefly ummarizes the structure, properties, synthetic pathways, characterization methods and application potential of serrawettins,in order to provide a reference for further research and application of serrawettins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]