Production and characterization of ectoine by Marinococcus sp. ECT1 isolated from a high-salinity environment

A halophilic bacterium isolated from a salt environment in southern Taiwan was identified as a Marinococcus sp. ECT1. This bacterium could synthesize and accumulate intracellular ectoine as a compatible solute capable of resisting osmotic stress in a hyper-osmotic environment. This study also developed a semi-synthesized medium (YAMS medium), capable of facilitating the growth of this Marinococcus sp. ECT1 with 600 mg/L crude ectoine production. Moreover, Marinococcus sp. ECT1 was grown on YAMS medium containing different initial yeast extract concentrations (CYE) (0 to 60 g/L) to demonstrate how CYE affects crude ectoine production. While the maximum cell concentration was increased by 23-fold when the CYE was 40 g/L, the maximum crude ectoine production reached 2.5 g/L when CYE was 40 g/L. In addition to demonstrating the success of the fermentation strategy of ectoine in increasing the production and production yield, experimental results further demonstrated that the fermentation medium of ectoine is highly promising for commercialization. Furthermore, the molecular weight and chemical structure of ectoine were identified and characterized by FAB-MS and 1H-NMR.