Tashirev A B, Romanovskaia V A, Shilin S O, Chernaia N A
Mikrobiol Z. 2010 Jan-Feb;72(1):3-8.
Now it is considered, that melanin is promising for application in medicine and pharmacology. Since black yeast were found in polar regions before, we have carried out screening of yeast-producers of melanin in the Antarctic biotopes. Dark pigmented microorganisms are revealed in 30% of samples from terrestrial biotopes at the western coast of the Antarctic peninsula, on islands of the Argentina archipelago (Galindez, Skua, Corner, Barchans, Irizar, Uruguay, Cruls, Three little pigs, King-George), and also on the neighbouring islands Petermann, Jalour, Berthelot, Darboux and Lippmann. In the Antarctic lichens the occurrence frequency of dark pigmented microorganisms, their total number and biodiversity are significantly higher, than in other Antarctic biotopes. Coal-black yeast are found on the crustose and bushy lichens on vertical rocks, they occur less often in soil, their quantity made 1 x 10(2) - 6 x 10(3)/g of a sample. Coal-black pigments were isolated from two Antarctic strains of yeast. These pigments are identical to melanin according to a complex of specific chemical tests, that is also confirmed by the character of UV-spectra (220-230 nm) and absorption spectra in the visible area (400-800 nm). The output of synthesized pigment/g in strain 36 made more than 10% of biomass amount. So, the yeast synthesizing intensively melanin are revealed in the Antarctic terrestrial biotopes.
现在人们认为，黑色素在医学和药理学应用方面具有前景。由于之前在极地地区发现了黑色酵母，我们对南极生物群落中黑色素产生酵母进行了筛选。在南极半岛西海岸陆地生物群落、阿根廷群岛（加林德斯岛、贼鸥岛、科纳岛、新月形沙丘岛、伊里萨尔岛、乌拉圭岛、克鲁尔斯岛、三只小猪岛、乔治王岛）的岛屿以及邻近的彼得曼岛、雅卢尔岛、贝托洛岛、达尔布克斯岛和利普曼岛上，30%的样本中发现了深色色素微生物。在南极地衣中，深色色素微生物的出现频率、总数和生物多样性显著高于其他南极生物群落。在垂直岩石上的壳状和丛生地衣上发现了煤黑色酵母，它们在土壤中出现的频率较低，数量为每克样本1×10² - 6×10³个。从两株南极酵母菌株中分离出了煤黑色色素。根据一系列特定化学测试，这些色素与黑色素相同，紫外光谱（220 - 230纳米）和可见光区域（400 - 800纳米）的吸收光谱特征也证实了这一点。菌株36中合成色素/克的产量超过生物量的10%。因此，在南极陆地生物群落中发现了能大量合成黑色素的酵母。
