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Role of the Extremolytes Ectoine and Hydroxyectoine as Stress Protectants and Nutrients: Genetics, Phylogenomics, Biochemistry, and Structural Analysis
- Source :
- Genes
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Fluctuations in environmental osmolarity are ubiquitous stress factors in many natural habitats of microorganisms, as they inevitably trigger osmotically instigated fluxes of water across the semi-permeable cytoplasmic membrane. Under hyperosmotic conditions, many microorganisms fend off the detrimental effects of water efflux and the ensuing dehydration of the cytoplasm and drop in turgor through the accumulation of a restricted class of organic osmolytes, the compatible solutes. Ectoine and its derivative 5-hydroxyectoine are prominent members of these compounds and are synthesized widely by members of the Bacteria and a few Archaea and Eukarya in response to high salinity/osmolarity and/or growth temperature extremes. Ectoines have excellent function-preserving properties, attributes that have led to their description as chemical chaperones and fostered the development of an industrial-scale biotechnological production process for their exploitation in biotechnology, skin care, and medicine. We review, here, the current knowledge on the biochemistry of the ectoine/hydroxyectoine biosynthetic enzymes and the available crystal structures of some of them, explore the genetics of the underlying biosynthetic genes and their transcriptional regulation, and present an extensive phylogenomic analysis of the ectoine/hydroxyectoine biosynthetic genes. In addition, we address the biochemistry, phylogenomics, and genetic regulation for the alternative use of ectoines as nutrients.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Osmotic shock
enzymes
030106 microbiology
high salinity
Review
Ectoine
crystal structures
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
Phylogenomics
genomics
Genetics
Genetics (clinical)
chemical chaperones
Osmotic concentration
biology
Chemistry
biology.organism_classification
Biochemistry
Osmolyte
gene expression
Osmoprotectant
osmotic stress
Chemical chaperone
growth temperature extremes
biotechnology
Archaea
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20734425
- Volume :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Genes
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....77768dc55edb567f3ddfecd7303ffc58