Evaluation of UV-B protection efficiency of mycosporine like amino acid extracted from the cyanobacteria Anabaenopsis sp. SLCyA isolated from a hypersaline lake

Abstract MAAs are natural UV-protectant molecules produced by many marine organisms including cyanobacteria. In the present study five different cyanobacterial strains were isolated from hypersaline Sambhar Lake, India. The isolated cyanobacterium Anabaenopsis sp. SLCyA was able to produce large quantity of MAA (0.1 mg/g dry weight) when exposed to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and ultraviolet radiation-B (UV-B) until 48 h. The produced MAA was identified as Shinorine showed the absorption maximum at 334 nm. This MAA was able to provide significant protection to E. coli ATCC 25922 against UV-B radiation and 83.5% of the cells survived even after 20 min of exposure.