Tran-Ly Anh N, Reyes Carolina, Schwarze Francis W M R, Ribera Javier
Laboratory for Cellulose & Wood Materials, Empa, 9014, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zürich, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland.
World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2020 Oct 12;36(11):170. doi: 10.1007/s11274-020-02941-z.
Melanins are natural biopolymers that are known to contribute to different biological processes and to protect organisms from adverse environmental conditions. During the past decade, melanins have attracted increasing attention for their use in organic semiconductors and bioelectronics, drug delivery, photoprotection and environmental bioremediation. Although considerable advances in these fields have been achieved, real-world applications of melanins are still scarce, probably due to the limited and expensive source of natural melanin. Nevertheless, recent biotechnological advances have allowed for relatively large-scale production of microbial melanins, which could replace current commercial melanin. In this review, we first describe different melanin sources and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each production method. Our focus is on the microbial synthesis of melanins, including the methodology and mechanism of melanin formation. Applications of microbial melanins are also discussed, and an outlook on how to push the field forward is discussed.
黑色素是天然生物聚合物，已知其参与不同的生物过程，并保护生物体免受不利环境条件的影响。在过去十年中，黑色素因其在有机半导体和生物电子学、药物递送、光保护和环境生物修复中的应用而受到越来越多的关注。尽管在这些领域已经取得了相当大的进展，但黑色素在实际应用中仍然很少，这可能是由于天然黑色素的来源有限且昂贵。然而，最近的生物技术进展使得微生物黑色素能够相对大规模地生产，这有可能取代目前的商业黑色素。在这篇综述中，我们首先描述不同的黑色素来源，并强调每种生产方法的优缺点。我们重点关注黑色素的微生物合成，包括黑色素形成的方法和机制。还讨论了微生物黑色素的应用，并探讨了如何推动该领域向前发展的前景。
