Carotenoids from Cyanobacteria: Biotechnological Potential and Optimization Strategies

Abstract

Carotenoids are tetraterpenoids molecules present in all photosynthetic organisms, responsible for better light-harvesting and energy dissipation in photosynthesis. In cyanobacteria, the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids is well described, and apart from the more common compounds (e.g., β-carotene, zeaxanthin, and echinenone), specific carotenoids can also be found, such as myxoxanthophyll. Moreover, cyanobacteria have a protein complex called orange carotenoid protein (OCP) as a mechanism of photoprotection. Although cyanobacteria are not the organism of choice for the industrial production of carotenoids, the optimisation of their production and the evaluation of their bioactive capacity demonstrate that these organisms may indeed be a potential candidate for future pigment production in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable approach of biorefinery. Carotenoids-rich extracts are described as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumoral agents and are proposed for feed and cosmetical industries. Thus, several strategies for the optimisation of a cyanobacteria-based bioprocess for the obtention of pigments were described. This review aims to give an overview of carotenoids from cyanobacteria not only in terms of their chemistry but also in terms of their biotechnological applicability and the advances and the challenges in the production of such compounds.

Gradual Response of Cyanobacterial Thylakoids to Acute High-Light Stress—Importance of Carotenoid Accumulation

“…Moreover, it is possible that G-carotene increase affects also myxoxanthophyll accumulation. The monocyclic G -carotene represents a branching point towards either β-carotene or myxoxanthophyll [78] that could possibly act as two competing routes during HL stress. The increased level of G-carotene could thus represent a physiological response of cyanobacterial cell physiology during acute HL stress.…”

Bioprospecting of Microalgae Isolated from the Adriatic Sea: Characterization of Biomass, Pigment, Lipid and Fatty Acid Composition, and Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity

“…C6, but the content of each detected pigment was significantly lower. These differences could be attributed to specific strain characteristics [128,129]. The lowest content of each pigment as well as total pigments content was observed in the cyanobacterium Euhalothece sp.…”

“…It contained only 37.29 mg of total pigments per 100 g of DW, with lutein as the most abundant pigment (22.45 mg/100 g DW). In cyanobacteria, the main pigments are phycobiliproteins, while carotenoids have a protective role against saturating light and are a quencher of reactive oxygen species (ROS) [129]. Pigment phycocyanin is found as one of the main pigments in photosynthetic pigments of the cyanobacteria Euhalothece sp.…”

Marine Microbial-Derived Resource Exploration: Uncovering the Hidden Potential of Marine Carotenoids

“…The industry for the utilization of carotenoid pigments has accelerated its growth in recent years. The global carotenoid market is being propelled forward by the increasing use of pigments in a variety of industries, including health and pharmaceutical [77]. Between 2016 and 2019, the market for carotenoid pigments surpassed 1.5 billion USD [78][79][80].…”