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Exploration of Extremophiles for Value-Added Products
Published in Pratibha Dheeran, Sachin Kumar, Extremophiles, 2022
Surojit Bera, Trinetra Mukherjee, Subhabrata Das, Sandip Mondal, Suprabhat Mukherjee, Sagnik Chakraborty
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Machado-Joseph disease are regarded as a central event in pathogenesis via the misfolding of mass proteins. Chaperone protein overexpression accepts misfolding as a frequent target for successful therapy. Furusho et al. (2005) investigated molecules that could theoretically affect protein folding from the extremophiles. Ectoine, initially discovered in halophiles, is an organic low-molecular-mass molecule and acts as an osmoprotective agent; it is ideal for maintaining enzymatic activity against freezing protein stabilization treatments. Ectoine was found to decrease large cytoplasmic inclusions and increase the rate of nuclear inclusions, while the nuclei’s integrity continued to remain. Furthermore, ectoine has been shown to protect cells from polyglutamine (Furusho et al. 2005).
Halophiles: Pharmaceutical Potential and Biotechnological Applications
Published in Devarajan Thangadurai, Jeyabalan Sangeetha, Industrial Biotechnology, 2017
Rebecca S. Thombre, Vaishnavi S. Joshi, Radhika S. Oke
Ectoine is a cyclic tetrahydropyrimidine (1,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2-methyl-4-pyrimidinecarboxylic acid) and increases in the cell with the increase in the extracellular NaCl concentration (Figure 5.1). A variant solute of ectoine known as the hydroxyectoine is also known to accumulate in some halotolerant species growing in high salt concentration. Ectoine only accumulates in the exponential phase of growth (Regev et al., 1990; Galinski et al., 1995; Kuhlmann and Bremer, 2002). The biosynthetic pathway was first studied in H. elongate DSM 2581 (Peters et al., 1990). Phosphorylation of L-aspartate to L-aspartate phosphate semialdehyde takes place in the presence of L-aspartate phosphate. The reaction is catalyzed by L-aspartate-beta-semialdehyde dehydrogenase. In the first step L-diaminobutyric acid is formed from L-aspartate-beta-semialdehyde dehydrogenase by the enzyme L-diaminobutyric acid transaminase. This is then acetylated to N (4)-acetyl-L-2, 4-diaminobutyric acid by the enzyme L-diaminobutyric acid acetyl transferase. Lastly, the acetylated N (4)-acetyl-L-2,4-diaminobutyric acid is converted to ectoine by cyclic condensation catalyzed by the enzyme ectoine synthase (Grammel, 2000; Gracia-Estepa et al., 2006). Genes encoding the enzymes for the biosynthesis of ectoines have been identified in fifty bacterial and one archaeal species (Lo et al., 2009). The genes are clustered in one single operon. It is important to optimize knowledge of ectoine synthesis as new and genetically engineered strains of ectoine producers are essential. Ectoines offer macromolecule protection against freezing, drying, high salinity, oxygen radicals, radiation, etc. (da Costa et al., 1998). Ectoines bring about conformational change in the structure of DNA which aids them is camouflaging from getting cleaved by the restriction endonucleases. Ectoines also display a protective role in diseases like Ischemia (Grant et al., 1990), emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer and fibroses, cardiovascular and immune system (Peter et al., 2004; Macnee, 2007).
Ectoine production with indigenous Marinococcus sp. MAR2 isolated from the marine environment
Published in Preparative Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2020
Wei-Chuan Chen, Fang-Wei Yuan, Li-Fen Wang, Chih-Ching Chien, Yu-Hong Wei
Ectoine (1,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2-methyl-4-pyrimidinecarboxylic acid) (Figure 1), a natural cyclic amino acid derivative, is a compatible solute for cell and acts as a protectant for many bacterial cells.[1] Ectoine can be used as an osmoregulatory solute to balance the osmotic pressure between the cells and the surrounding environment through the salt-in-cytoplasm and the organic-osmolyte mechanisms.[2] It was first identified in Ectothiorhodospira halochloris, an extremely halophilic phototrophic bacterium;[3] it was also found in a wide range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria such as Brevibacterium linens, Halomonas elongate, Pseudomonas stutzeri, and Marinococcus halophilus.[4–8] The multifunctional effects of ectoine, such as DNA protection from ionizing radiation,[9,10] prevention of UV-induced damage in skin cells[11–13] and moisturizing effects, have encouraged the development of a wide range of skin care and cosmetics products.[1] In addition, ectoine has also been used as a protectant for healthy cells during chemotherapy.[13]
Ectoine hydration, aggregation and influence on water structure
Published in Molecular Physics, 2019
Michael Di Gioacchino, Fabio Bruni, Armida Sodo, Silvia Imberti, Maria Antonietta Ricci
Many extremophiles, such as halotolerant and halophilic bacteria, are known to live under high-stress conditions, due to very high or very low temperatures, non-physiological pH values, extreme salt concentrations, or UV radiation, to quote a few [1,2]. Their survival strategy is based on the ability to synthetise bioprotective molecules. Among these, ectoine is one of the most important and abundant and is found in several bacteria species [3,4]. Ectoine, (4S)-2-methyl-1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine-4-carboxylic acid, (Figure 1) was originally discovered in the extremely halophilic phototrophic purple sulphur bacterium Ectothiorhodospira halochloris [5,6]. Ectoine is a low molecular weight organic compound, and a cyclic amino acid derivative. Importantly, it belongs to the class of compatible solutes, i.e. molecules which do not interfere with cellular biochemistry and metabolism, even at high molar concentration [7,8]. It is also an important and widely occurring osmolyte, effective also at very high stress conditions [5,7,9]. Ectoine biosynthesis pathways [6,10,11] and production [8,12] have been deeply investigated, due to its applications in cosmetics [13] and new materials production [14], based on the stabilisation and anti-inflammatory effect of its aqueous solutions [15].