Modification of the carotenoid production of mucor circinelloides using different xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous crts genes

Csernetics, Árpád and Vágvölgyi, Máté and Szekeres, András and Tóth, Eszter and Molnár, Réka and Papp, Tamás: Modification of the carotenoid production of mucor circinelloides using different xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous crts genes. Review on agriculture and rural development, (2) 1. p. 513. (2013)

Cikk, tanulmány, mű agricul_review_2013_001_suppl_513.pdf Download (133kB)

Abstract

Canthaxanthin and astaxanthin are oxygenated derivatives of β-carotene and have several beneficial effects on the animal and human health. They are mainly used as feed additives, especially for fishes and poultry. The aim of the present study is to examine the biological requirements for the microbial production of these natural pigments. Mucor circinelloides has been used as model organism of the microbial carotenoid biosynthesis. Previously, canthaxanthin production was achieved in this fungus by integrating a modified bacterial β-carotene-ketolase gene in the genome of M. circinelloides. In the present study, crtS genes of different X. dendrorhous strains were cloned and expressed in β-carotene producing wild type and canthaxanthin producing mutant M. circinelloides strains. X. dendrorhous is an astaxanthin producing basidiomycete yeast. Previously, it was proven, that the cythochrome-P450 hydroxylase enzyme encoded by the crtS gene has β-carotenehydroxylase activity (ÁLVAREZ et al., 2006). A hypothethical β-carotene-ketolase activity has also been suggested (OJIMA et al., 2006), but it has not been verified yet. In our study, crtS genes with different sequences were amplified and several plasmids were constructed carrying the isolated genes under the control of the regulator regions of the Mucor glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 1 gene. The plasmids were transformed into the fungal protoplasts. Analysis of the carotenoid content of the transformants revealed astaxanthin production in the resulting strains. This work has been supported by the KTIA-OTKA grant CK 80188.

Actions (login required)

View Item