Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Apr;69(2):247-258.
doi: 10.1007/s12223-023-01105-4. Epub 2023 Nov 14.

Biotechnological production of ectoine: current status and prospects

Jun Chen  1   2   3 , Deliang Qiao  1   4 , Tao Yuan  1 , Yeyuan Feng  1 , Pengjun Zhang  1 , Xuejun Wang  1 , Li Zhang  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Biotechnological production of ectoine: current status and prospects

Jun Chen et al. Folia Microbiol (Praha). 2024 Apr.

Abstract

Ectoine is an important natural secondary metabolite in halophilic microorganisms. It protects cells against environmental stressors, such as salinity, freezing, drying, and high temperatures. Ectoine is widely used in medical, cosmetic, and other industries. Due to the commercial market demand of ectoine, halophilic microorganisms are the primary method for producing ectoine, which is produced using the industrial fermentation process "bacterial milking." The method has some limitations, such as the high salt concentration fermentation, which is highly corrosive to the equipment, and this also increases the difficulty of downstream purification and causes high production costs. The ectoine synthesis gene cluster has been successfully heterologously expressed in industrial microorganisms, and the yield of ectoine was significantly increased and the cost was reduced. This review aims to summarize and update microbial production of ectoine using different microorganisms, environments, and metabolic engineering and fermentation strategies and provides important reference for the development and application of ectoine.

Keywords: Biosynthetic pathway; Compatible solute; EctABC gene; Ectoine; Metabolic engineering.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abdel-Aziz H, Wadie W, Abdallah DM, Lentzen G, Khayyal MT (2013) Novel effects of ectoine, a bacteria-derived natural tetrahydropyrimidine, in experimental colitis. Phytomedicine 20:585–591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2013.01.009 - DOI
    1. Abdel-Aziz H, Wadie W, Scherner O, Efferth T, Khayyal MT (2015) Bacteria-derived compatible solutes ectoine and 5α-hydroxyectoine act as intestinal barrier stabilizers to ameliorate experimental inflammatory bowel disease. J Nat Prod 78:1309–1315. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.5b00115 - DOI
    1. Adam B, Zofia S, Tadeusz S (2014) Protective effects of ectoine on heat-stressed Daphnia magna. J Comp Physiol B 184:961–976. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-014-0860-x - DOI
    1. Adamiak J, Bonifay V, Otlewska A, Sunner JA, Beech IB, Stryszewska T, Kanka S, Oracz J, Zyzelewicz D, Gutarowska B (2017) Untargeted metabolomics approach in halophiles: understanding the biodeterioration process of building materials. Front Microbiol 8:2448. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02448 - DOI
    1. Anburajan L, Meena B, Sreelatha T, Vinithkumar NV, Kirubagaran R, Dharani G (2019) Ectoine biosynthesis genes from the deep sea halophilic eubacteria, Bacillus clausii NIOT-DSB04: its molecular and biochemical characterization. Microb Pathog 136:103693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micpath.2019.103693 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources