Melanins: Functions, Biotechnological Production, and Applications, 2023

This book provides an up-to-date overview of the biological functions of melanins, their biotechnological production, and their industrial applications.

The melanins form a group of polymeric pigments found in most organisms. These natural products are generated by the oxidation of phenolic and indolic molecules yielding melanins, which include eumelanin, pheomelanin, pyomelanin, and the allomelanins. These pigments have diverse biological functions, including photoprotection, thermoregulation, antioxidation, virulence, and metal ion sequestration. Melanins have physicochemical properties that have proven useful in the optical, electronic, material, agriculture, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and medical industries.
The chapters in this book provide an in-depth analysis of the current issues and challenges in this field. Topics covered include the properties, biogenesis, and evolution of melanosomes.

Guillermo Gosset was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 1993. Since 1988 he has been a research scientist at the Biotechnology Institute/UNAM. His main research interests are related to metabolic pathway engineering and microbial physiology. Gosset’s work has appeared in more than 121 publications and been included in 8 patents. Several of these publications are utilized as examples in textbooks in the field of metabolic engineering. His industrial experience includes two years as a visiting scientist at Genencor International (Palo Alto, U.S.A.) and one year at Metabolic Explorer (Clermont-Ferrand, France). He is member of the editorial board of the Microbial Physiology (formerly known as Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology), where he has been a Senior Editor since 2006. He has also been the Associate Editor of Microbial Cell Factories since 2014.