Biosynthesis of Carotenoids and Apocarotenoids by Microorganisms and Their Industrial Potential

Abstract

Carotenoids are a large group of natural pigments, ranging from red, to orange, to yellow colors. Synthesized by plants and some microorganisms (e.g., microalgae, fungi and bacteria), carotenoids have important physiological functions (e.g., light harvesting). Apocarotenoids are carotenoid-derived compounds and play important roles in various biological activities (e.g., plant hormones). Many carotenoids and apocarotenoids have high economic value in feed, food, supplements, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Despite high commercial values, they are severely undersupplied because of low abundance in natural hosts (usually a few milligrams per kilogram of raw materials). Furthermore, plants or microbes usually produce mixtures of these molecules with very similar physical and chemical properties (such as α-and β-carotenes). All these features render the extraction from natural hosts rather difficult and also very costly both from process economics and sustainable land-use viewpoints. Chemical synthesis is also expensive due to structural complexity (e.g., astaxanthin has many unsaturated bonds and two chiral regions). Biotechnology via the rapidly advancing metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches has led to alternative ways to attain several carotenoids and apocarotenoids at relatively high titers and yields using fast-growing microorganisms. This chapter briefly reviews the biosynthesis of carotenoids and apocarotenoids by microorganisms and their industrial potential.

Strategies for the production of biochemicals in bioenergy crops

“…Carotenoids are universal red, orange, and yellow pigments found in plants, algae, fungi, and photosynthetic bacteria [214]. Due to their antioxidant and cytoprotective properties, carotenoids and their derivatives (i.e., apocarotenoids) are high-value supplements for the food, feed, beverage, and nutraceuticals/nutricosmetics industries [215][216][217].…”

“…Due to their antioxidant and cytoprotective properties, carotenoids and their derivatives (i.e., apocarotenoids) are high-value supplements for the food, feed, beverage, and nutraceuticals/nutricosmetics industries [215][216][217]. The global market value for carotenoids is projected to reach US $1.53 billion by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9% [214,218]. Among different types of carotenoids, astaxanthin is more bioactive than zeaxanthin, lutein, and β-carotene, which is mainly due to the presence of a keto-and a hydroxyl group on each end of its molecule [219].…”

“…The biosynthetic pathway of (apo)carotenoids and their industrial potential have been extensively reviewed [214,222] (Fig. 4a).…”

Roseimaritima sediminicola sp. nov., a new member of Planctomycetaceae isolated from Chilika lagoon

“…Apocarotenoids are carotenoid-derived terpenoids and play an important role in many biological activities [36] and are of industrial importance [37]. These are inducers of many volatile aromatic compounds that act as repellents, chemoattractants, growth simulators and inhibitors.…”

Glycosylation of bioactive C13-apocarotenols inNicotiana benthamianaandMentha × piperita

“…Plants synthesize a number of C lipid-soluble colorful carotenoids and oxygenbearing xanthophylls from C 5 isopentenyl building blocks, which are essential for photosynthesis and -protection (Giuliano 2014;Tian 2015). They occur in all photosynthetic organisms (higher plants, algae, and cyanobacteria) as well as some non-photosynthetic microbes (fungi and bacteria) (Cazzonelli and Pogson 2010;Walter and Strack 2011;Zhang 2018). When produced in petals and other parts of flowers carotenoids/xanthophylls act as visual signals to attract pollinators, while they decoy seed-dispersing animals when accumulated in fruits.…”