紫外線吸収物質の研究 : その10. グレートバリアリーフの海洋生物について

概要

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All marine organisms living in the shallow-water environment of tropical coral reefs are typically exposed to high levels of solar UV radiation. Reduction of UV-damage to chloroplast, DNA, and other constituent biomolecules often includes the synthesis and ac- cumulation of natural, UV-absorbing sunscreens such as mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). In corals, MAAs are presumably translocated from the algal symbiont, and algal consumers such as starfishes, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and fishes have evolved the capacity to obtain MAAs from their diet and to accumulate them to specialized tissues (epidermis, eyes and ovaries via gut absorption) to provide UV-protection. Specific marine bacteria have been found to efficiently convert imino-MAAs to mycosporine-glycine (MG) and 4-deoxygadusol (4-DG). MG and 4-DG were discovered to be an antioxidant with activity comparable to that of ascorbate. The proposal concept is to isolate imino-MAAs from rich algal sources and optimize the production of MG and 4-DG using an established microbial "retrosynthetic" pathway to further examine their potential use as a natural antioxidant in food-processing, cosmetics and biomedical applications.
2004-03-25