Biosynthesis of the Natural Antioxidant Mycosporine-Glycine and Its Anti-Photodamage Properties
Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation directly damages the skin, leading to disorders, increasing the demand for natural UV-absorbing compounds as alternatives to synthetic sunscreens. Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), particularly mycosporine-glycine (M-Gly), are promising due to their antioxidant properties, low molecular weight, and high molar extinction coefficient. However, its application is limited by low natural abundance. In this study, we identified and recombined three genes (<i>mysA</i>, <i>mysB</i>, <i>mysC</i>) from <i>Microcystis aeruginosa</i> to enable M-Gly production in <i>Escherichia coli</i> BL21(DE3). M-Gly was purified via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and characterized using UV, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. We explored its preventive and therapeutic effects on UVB-induced skin damage in HaCaT cells and mice. Western blot analysis suggests that M-Gly activates TGF-β/Smad and WNT/β-catenin signaling pathways to promote skin repair. This research provides an efficient synthesis platform for M-Gly and supports its potential use in therapeutics for skin photodamage.
Authors
- Zhi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6256-9516)
- Mengke Yao
- Jinzheng Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7646-6118)
- Junhan Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6286-6307)
- Huancai Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7923-9927)
- Kai Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3068-4077)
- Haibo Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3796-5095)
- Changfeng Qu
- Ling Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0629-8947)
- Qing Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4041-9485)
- Yingying He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8759-3157)
- Jinlai Miao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6387-4229)
- Ming Liu
Institutions
- Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (CN)
- First Institute of Oceanography (CN)
- Institute of Food Science & Technology (GB)
- Ocean University of China (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
- Published
- 2025-04-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.5c03351
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 15.13
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province
- Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology
- Natural Science Foundation of Qingdao
- Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institutes of China
- Innovation Group of Jinan
- Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong
- National Key Research and Development Program of China