Composition of the production medium used was Tyrosine agar
(glycerol 10 mL; l-tyrosine 0.5 g; l-asparagine 1 g; K2HPO4 0.5 g;
MgSO4·7H2O 0.5 g; NaCl 0.5 g; FeSO4·7H2O 0.01 g; trace salt solution
1 mL; pH 7.0 and 100% seawater). All the experiments were
carried out in 500 mL Erlenmeyer flasks containing 100 mL of Tyrosine
agar medium. Sterile medium was inoculated with 5% of
inoculum (3.1–4.7
×
104 CFU/mL), incubated at 28 ◦C and cultivated
under agitation at 180 rpm for 7 days. Growth and melanin production
were determined from the samples collected at 12 h intervals
for which samples (5 mL) were taken from each of three replicate
tubes. The cells were harvested by centrifugation at 12,000
×
g for
15 min, at 4 ◦C.