Production of stress-tolerant organisms

摘要

A new process is characterised in that it is suitable for transferring the ability to biosynthesise compatible solutes to living organisms, where the products themselves are recovered or use is made of the property associated therewith that the altered organisms become tolerant to stress factors, especially to reduced water activity. Thereby the tolerance to reduced water activity manifests itself in the fact that the organisms are capable of living in solutions with an increased osmotic value and/or of surviving freeze-thawing and/or partial or total desiccation better than unaltered organisms. Also claimed is a nucleic acid fragment with the approximately 4346 bp Marinococcus halophilus gene for ectoin synthesis (given in the specification) or part thereof or a similar sequence whose gene products have the same function and use.