A novel marine melanogenic bacterium, strain MMB-1, was isolated from the Mediterranean Sea. The taxonomic characterization of this strain indicated that it belongs to the genus Alteromonas. Under in vivo conditions, L-tyrosine was the specific monophenolic precursor for melanin synthesis. This bacterium contained all types of activities associated with polyphenol oxidases (PPOs), cresolase (EC 1.18.14.1), catecholase (EC 1.10.3.1), and laccase (EC 1.10.3.2). These activities were due to the presence of two different PPOs. The first one showed all the enzymatic activities, but it was not involved in melanogenesis in vivo, since amelanogenic mutant strains obtained by nitrosoguanidine treatment contained levels of this PPO similar to that of the wild-type MMB-1 strain. The second PPO showed cresolase and catecholase activities but no laccase, and it was involved in melanogenesis, since this enzyme was lost in amelanogenic mutant strains. This PPO was strongly activated by sodium dodecyl sulfate below the critical micelle concentration, and it is a tyrosinase-like enzyme showing a lag period in its tyrosine hydroxylase activity that could be avoided by small amounts of L-dopa. This is the first report of a bacterium that contains two PPOs and also the first report of a pluripotent PPO showing all types of oxidase activities. The bacterium and the pluripotent PPO may be useful models for exploring the roles of PPOs in cellular physiology, aside from melanin formation. On the other hand, the high oxidizing capacity of the PPO for a wide range of substrates could make possible its application in phenolic biotransformations, food processing, or the cosmetic industry, where fungal and plant PPOs are being used.

Melanin synthesis in mammals is catalysed by at least three enzymic proteins, tyrosinase (monophenol dihydroxyphenylalanine:oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.14.18.1) and tyrosinase-related proteins (tyrps) 1 and 2, whose genes map to the albino, brown and slaty loci in mice, respectively. Tyrosinase catalyses the rate-limiting generation of l-dopaquinone from l-tyrosine and is also able to oxidize l-dopa to l-dopaquinone. Conversely, mouse tyrp1, but not tyrosinase, catalyses the oxidation of the indolic intermediate 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA) into the corresponding 5,6-indolequinone-2-carboxylic acid, thus promoting the incorporation of DHICA units into eumelanin. The catalytic activities of the human melanogenic enzymes are still debated. TYRP1has been reported to lack DHICA oxidase activity, whereas tyrosinase appears to accelerate DHICA consumption, thus raising the question of DHICA metabolism in human melanocytes. Here we have used two different approaches, comparison of the catalytic activities of human melanocytic cell lines expressing the full set of melanogenic enzymes or deficient in TYRP1, and transient expression of TYR and tyr genes in COS7 cells, to demonstrate that human tyrosinase actually functions as a DHICA oxidase, as opposed to the mouse enzyme. Therefore, human tyrosinase displays a broader substrate specificity than its mouse counterpart, and might be at least partially responsible for the incorporation of DHICA units into human eumelanins.

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We have introduced a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction based method to measure mRNA levels of the melanogenesis enzymes tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related-protein 1 (TRP-1), and tyrosinase-related-protein 2 (TRP-2). Expression was determined by reverse transcriptase-competitive multiplex polymerase chain reaction of (i) melanogenesis enzyme transcripts and the "housekeeping" gene glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and (ii) two internal standards consisting of mutated melanogenesis enzyme cDNA and mutated gene glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase cDNA. This was investigated on in vitro cultured melanocytes in the presence of three different steroids; one glucocorticoid (betamethasone-17-valerate) and two sex steroids (diethylstilbestrol and estradiol). All three steroids lead to an increase of about 1.5-2.5-fold of tyrosinase transcripts. The amount of TRP-1 transcripts was likewise enhanced, but only moderately (approximately 1.5-fold). In contrast, TRP-2 transcripts were reduced by approximately 40% in number after betamethasone-17-valerate treatment, whereas the two sex steroids, diethylstilbestrol and estradiol, caused an upregulation of about 20-fold of the initial TRP-2 transcript level. We therefore suggest that hyperpigmentation during pregnancy or under contraceptive treatment is mediated by a direct induction of melanogenesis via sex steroids.