The fungus Gliocephalotrichum simplex as a source of abundant, extracellular melanin for biotechnological applications
Melanins are commonly produced by bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, where they play a role in many biological functions. They protect organisms against UV and ionizing radiations. Their potential applications in biotechnological industries such as cosmetics and paints, where UV protection is requ...
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Published in | World journal of microbiology & biotechnology Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 505 - 512 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Dordrecht
Springer Netherlands
01.02.2012
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Melanins are commonly produced by bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, where they play a role in many biological functions. They protect organisms against UV and ionizing radiations. Their potential applications in biotechnological industries such as cosmetics and paints, where UV protection is required, are hampered by the lack of suitable organisms or methods to produce them abundantly. We report here the production of high amounts of extracellular melanin by the fungus
Gliocephalotrichum simplex
in cultures supplemented with tyrosine. Their typical UV-absorbance, as well as i.r.,
13
C solid-state and
1
H NMR spectra indicated that the melanin is a eumelanin, being a copolymer of dihydroxyindole carboxylic acid and dihydroxyindole, associated with some carbohydrates and proteinaceous matter. Optimal culture conditions established by a Plackett-Burman experiment, followed by a full factorial experiment based on tyrosine and peptone yielded a maximum of up to 6.6 g melanin l
−1
. The high yields of extracellular melanin from
G. simplex
enables its use in biotechnology. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0959-3993 1573-0972 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s11274-011-0841-0 |