%0 Journal Article
%A Casero, María Cristina
%A Velázquez, David
%A Pereira, Adrián
%A Tejedor, María del Mar
%A García, Luis
%A Quesada, Antonio
%A Cirés, Samuel
%T Hidden inside desert rocks: Salinity triggers an increase in exopolysaccharides from endolithic cyanobacteria with anti-inflammatory potential
%D 2024
%@ 2211-9264
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126058
%X Endolithic cyanobacteria thriving in rocks of deserts remain an unexplored source for the quest of novel bioproducts in extreme environments. In this work, 7 endolithic cyanobacteria from the polyextreme Atacama Desert, covering four genera and three lithic substrates, were investigated for the production of exopolysaccharides with anti-inflammatory potential. A moderate salinity (20 g NaCl L− 1 ) was tolerated by all strains, triggering a 3–9-fold increase in exopolysaccharides (EPS) yield in 4 of them that counteracted the growth decrease due to NaCl stress. EPS from all strains showed anti-elastase activity with inter-strain and inter-salinity variations. The moderate EPS productivity by Gloeocapsa sp. UAM572 (0.4 mg EPS L− 1 day− 1 ), elevated antielastase capacity of Chroococcidiopsis sp. UAM579 EPS (IC50 = 78 μg mL− 1 ) and the first biotechnological data of genus Pseudoacaryochloris, provide a promising foundation for potential applications of EPS from endolithic cyanobacteria in cosmetics and biomedicine, whose opportunities and challenges are discussed herein.
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