High production of bacteriorhodopsin from wild type Halobacterium salinarum.

Bacteriorhodopsin (bR) is a trans-membrane proton pump found in the purple membrane of Halobacterium salinarum. This protein has high photochemical and photoelectric conversion efficiency and thermal stability, allowing it to withstand high temperatures, high salinity, and nutritionally-limited environments. The ability of this protein to convert light energy into chemical energy has applications that are mainly therapeutic/diagnostic and research-oriented. There is increasing demand for bacteriorhodopsin production in different fields. The present study maximized bacteriorhodopsin production using H. salinarum. The physical parameters of illumination, agitation speed, temperature, and nitrogen source were studied using a fractional factorial design to determine the optimal levels of each. The most suitable nitrogen source was determined to be peptone from meat. The optimal temperature was 39 °C, agitation speed was 150 rpm, and light intensity was 6300 lux for bR production. Under these conditions, the maximum bR yield was 196 mg/l, which is about 4.23 fold greater than those obtained with basal medium. The proposed strategies could be used for bR production using this archaeobacterium; the results are the highest reported thus far from a batch culture of H. salinarum.