The aqueous-phase behavior of mannosylerythritol lipid A (MEL-A), which is a glycolipid biosurfactant produced from vegetable oils by yeast strains of the genus Pseudozyma, was investigated using polarized optical microscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). MEL-A was found to self-assemble into a variety of distinctive lyotropic liquid crystals including sponge (L-3), bicontinuous cubic (V-2), and lamella (L-alpha) phases. On the basis of SAXS measurements, we determined the structure of the liquid crystals. The estimated lattice constant for L-alpha was 3.58 nm. DSC measurement revealed that the phase transition enthalpies from the liquid crystal to the fluid isotropic phase were in the range of 0.22-0.44 kJ/mol. Although the present MEL-A phase diagram closely resembled that obtained from relatively hydrophobic poly(oxyethylene) or fluorinated surfactants, the MEL-A L-3 region was spread considerably over a wide temperature range (20-65 degrees C) compared to L-3 of those surfactants: this is probably due to the unique structure which is molecularly engineered by microorganisms. In this paper, we clarify the aqueous phase diagram of the natural glycolipid biosurfactant MEL-A, and we suggest that the obtained lyotropic crystals are potentially useful as novel nanostructured biomaterials.