四氢嘧啶微生物合成与应用研究进展

Research progress in microbial production and application of ectoines

摘要:

极端环境微生物定义了生命的边界。为了适应各种极端环境，极端环境微生物通过合成许多独特的活性化合物来保护自己。四氢嘧啶就是其中一种代表性的保护性物质。它最早是从极端嗜盐菌中发现的，作为调节细胞渗透压的一类相容性溶质，可以帮助微生物适应高盐等恶劣环境。研究发现四氢嘧啶不仅是一种重要的渗透压调节剂，还是一种高效的生物保护剂，可以帮助蛋白、核酸、生物膜乃至整个细胞对抗高温、干燥、冷冻和辐射等多种逆境。因此，四氢嘧啶在生物保护、生物医药和生物科技等众多领域展现出广阔的商业化应用前景。随着合成生物学和代谢工程技术的快速发展，传统的嗜盐菌四氢嘧啶生产方法已逐步被产率更高、环境更友好的生物工程菌及技术所取代。本文围绕四氢嘧啶的微生物合成及其应用研究进行综述，为后续四氢嘧啶的开发和应用提供重要参考。

Abstract:

Extremophiles thrive in environments considered extreme for human life. To adapt to the extreme environments, a distinct abundant group of microbial bioactive molecules was produced in the extremophiles. Ectoine, as a compatible solute, was discovered originally in the halophilic bacterium and enable the bacteria to survive in salty environments. In addition to be functional as an osmotic counterweight, ectoine was able to protect proteins, nucleic acids, cell membranes and even the whole cells against various stressors such as heating, drying, freezing and radiation. Therefore, ectoines exhibit great potential for the application in the fields of biomolecule protection, biomedicine and biotechnology. With the development of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, the traditional approach for ectoine production in halophilic bacteria was replaced by heterologous production of ectoines in the non-halophilic bacteria. In this paper, we overviewed the research progress on the microbial production and application of ectoines, which provides an important reference for the future development and commercial application of ectoines.