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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Pharmacologic Induction of Epidermal Melanin and Protection Against Sunburn in a Humanized Mouse Model
Published on: September 7, 2013
Melanin pigment formation and increased UV resistance in Bacillus thuringiensis following high temperature induction
Lifang Ruan1, Ziniu Yu, Bin Fang
1Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Ministry of Education, Wuhan, PR China.
Abstract:
The pigment melanin is well known to protect against the damaging effects of UV radiation. In this study, we show that thirty-five of thirty-seven tested Bacillus thuringiensis strains possess the potential to produce melanin in the presence of L-tyrosin at elevated temperature (42 degrees C). These findings offer a method of protecting insecticidal toxins produced by B. thuringiensis from UV degredation and may therefore have important applications in the field of crop protection. Toxicity assays on Heliothis armigera suggested that the insecticidal activity of B. thuringiensis that produced melanin was significantly higher after UV irradiation than when melanin was not produced.
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