earticle

영어

Lycopene can be synthesized from FPP in E. coli by introduction of crtE, crtB, and crtI.
β-Carotene, zeaxanthin, and astaxanthin can be produced from the lycopene-producing
E. coli by introduction of crtY, crtW, and crtZ. The plasmids, pT-LYCm4 for lycopene,
pT-HB for β-carotene, and pT-ZUM6 for zeaxanthin were constructed to produce each
carotenoid in E. coli. β-Carotene can be converted to astaxanthin via zeaxanthin by crtZ,
or via canthaxanthin by crtW. For production of astaxanthin in E. coli (pT-ZUM6), crtW
and crtZ genes were cloned from 6 bacteria, Brevundimonas aurantiaca,
Brevundimonas vesicularis, Novosphingobium aromaticivorum, Parvularcula
burmudensis, Robiginitalea biformata, and Xanthobacter autotrophicus. Astaxanthin of
5.4 mg/L and other intermediate carotenoids were produced from the E. coli (pT-ZUM6)
harboring crtW of B. vesicularis. There are various intermediate carotenoids on the
biosynthetic pathway from β-carotene to astaxanthin. No significant activities werenot
observed from the crtZ and crtW of the other bacteria. This work was supported by the
21C Frontier Microbial Genomics and Applications Center Program, EB-NCRC (Grant
No. R15-2003-012-02001-0), Brain Pool program and BK21 program of Korea.