Dedicated to Prof. Albert Eschenmoser on the occasion of his 75th birthday Incubation of deuteriated precursors in cultures of Flavobacterium produced specifically deuteriated carotenoids. Analysis of these led to several conclusions: i) Lycopene is a direct precursor of b,b-carotene. ii) Its terminal Me groups retain their integrity during cyclization: there is a stereospecific folding of the 1,5-diene. The Me(16,16') groups of lycopene become the Me(16,16') of b,b-carotene. Consequently, the folding must follow the C 2 (E,E) mode. iii) Incorporation of deuterium was sufficiently extensive to permit CD measurements on the isolated b,b-carotene, allowing its centers of chirality to be assigned as (1S,1'S). iv) The same chirality resulted from incorporation of [ 2 H 3 ]mevalonate into zeaxanthin. The syntheses of specifically deuteriated [ 2 H 3 ]GPP, [ 2 H 3 ]FPP, and [ 2 H 3 ]GG are described.