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Bioactivity profiling of the extremolyte ectoine as a promising protectant and its heterologous production

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Abstract

Ectoine is a compatible solutes that is diffusely dispersed in bacteria and archaea. It plays a significant role as protectant against various external pressures, such as high temperature, high osmolarity, dryness and radiation, in cells. Ectoine can be utilized in cosmetics due to its properties of moisturizing and antiultraviolet. It can also be used in the pharmaceutical industry for treating various diseases. Therefore, strong protection of ectoine creates a high commercial value. Its current market value is approximately US$1000 kg−1. However, traditional ectoine production in high-salinity media causes high costs of equipment loss and wastewater treatment. There is a growing attention to reduce the salinity of the fermentation broth without sacrificing the production of ectoine. Thus, heterologous production of ectoine in nonhalophilic microorganisms may represent the new generation of the industrial production of ectoine. In this review, we summarized and discussed the biological activities of ectoine on cell and human health protection and its heterologous production.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32102099) and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. Q22C207891) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021M702895). We highly appreciate Ziyi Cheng (University of Toronto) for the language polish and revision.

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  1. College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi Ma, Chutian Wu, Linjiang Zhu, Renjie Chang, Weilin Ma, Yanfeng Deng & Xiaolong Chen

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  1. Zhi Ma
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  2. Chutian Wu
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  3. Linjiang Zhu
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Correspondence to Xiaolong Chen.

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Ma, Z., Wu, C., Zhu, L. et al. Bioactivity profiling of the extremolyte ectoine as a promising protectant and its heterologous production. 3 Biotech 12, 331 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-022-03370-5

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