The biotechnological potential and design of novel carotenoids by gene combination in Escherichia coli.

Carotenoids are antioxidants with considerable pharmaceutical potential. More than 600 carotenoid structures are known but their availability is limited owing to practical difficulties associated with chemical synthesis and isolation from microorganisms or plant tissue. To overcome some of these problems, heterologous expression of carotenoid genes in Escherichia coli can be used for the synthesis of rare derivatives or even of novel carotenoids. Novel and rare carotenoids can be obtained by combining carotenoid genes from different host species in E. coli.

[1]  M Nakagawa,et al.  Metabolic engineering for production of beta-carotene and lycopene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. , 1994, Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry.

[2]  M M Sherman,et al.  Isolation and characterization of isoprene mutants of Escherichia coli , 1989, Journal of bacteriology.

[3]  N. Misawa,et al.  Production of beta-carotene in Zymomonas mobilis and Agrobacterium tumefaciens by introduction of the biosynthesis genes from Erwinia uredovora , 1991, Applied and environmental microbiology.

[4]  N. Misawa,et al.  Elucidation of the Erwinia uredovora carotenoid biosynthetic pathway by functional analysis of gene products expressed in Escherichia coli , 1990, Journal of bacteriology.

[5]  G. Sandmann,et al.  Identification of carotenoids in Erwinia herbicola and in a transformed Escherichia coli strain. , 1990, FEMS microbiology letters.

[6]  M. Kuntz,et al.  Molecular cloning and functional expression in E. coli of a novel plant enzyme mediating ξ‐carotene desaturation , 1995 .

[7]  D. Roop,et al.  Four new derivatives of the broad-host-range cloning vector pBBR1MCS, carrying different antibiotic-resistance cassettes. , 1995, Gene.

[8]  G. Sandmann,et al.  A New Type of Asymmetrically Acting β-Carotene Ketolase Is Required for the Synthesis of Echinenone in the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803* , 1997, The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

[9]  P Borel,et al.  Carotenoids in biological emulsions: solubility, surface-to-core distribution, and release from lipid droplets. , 1996, Journal of lipid research.

[10]  N. Misawa,et al.  Synthesis of atypical cyclic and acyclic hydroxy carotenoids in Escherichia coli transformants. , 1997, Journal of biotechnology.

[11]  N. Misawa,et al.  Production of zeaxanthin in Escherichia coli transformed with different carotenogenic plasmids , 1997, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[12]  R. L. Ausich.  Production of carotenoids by recombinant DNA technology , 1994 .

[13]  R. E. Rose,et al.  The nucleotide sequence of pACYC184 , 1988, Nucleic Acids Res..

[14]  P. Fraser,et al.  Expression of an active phytoene synthase from Erwinia uredovora and biochemical properties of the enzyme. , 1998, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[15]  B. Pogson,et al.  Functional analysis of the beta and epsilon lycopene cyclase enzymes of Arabidopsis reveals a mechanism for control of cyclic carotenoid formation. , 1996, The Plant cell.

[16]  N. Misawa,et al.  The carotenoid 7,8-dihydro-psi end group can be cyclized by the lycopene cyclases from the bacterium Erwinia uredovora and the higher plant Capsicum annuum. , 1996, European journal of biochemistry.

[17]  N. Misawa,et al.  Expression of an exogenous isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase gene enhances isoprenoid biosynthesis in Escherichia coli. , 1997, The Biochemical journal.

[18]  C M Kao,et al.  Engineered biosynthesis of a complete macrolactone in a heterologous host. , 1994, Science.

[19]  K. Poralla,et al.  Genetic and biochemical analyses of the biosynthesis of the yellow carotenoid 4,4'-diaponeurosporene of Staphylococcus aureus , 1994, Journal of bacteriology.

[20]  N. Misawa,et al.  New functional assignment of the carotenogenic genes crtB and crtE with constructs of these genes from Erwinia species. , 1992, FEMS microbiology letters.

[21]  H. Gerster.  Anticarcinogenic effect of common carotenoids. , 1993, International journal for vitamin and nutrition research. Internationale Zeitschrift fur Vitamin- und Ernahrungsforschung. Journal international de vitaminologie et de nutrition.

[22]  N. Krinsky.  The biological properties of carotenoids , 1994 .

[23]  G. Sandmann,et al.  Carotenoid biosynthesis in microorganisms and plants. , 1994, European journal of biochemistry.

[24]  P. Hugueney,et al.  Xanthophyll Biosynthesis , 1996, The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

[25]  J. Vieira,et al.  The pUC plasmids, an M13mp7-derived system for insertion mutagenesis and sequencing with synthetic universal primers. , 1982, Gene.

[26]  C. Rice-Evans,et al.  Why do we expect carotenoids to be antioxidants in vivo? , 1997, Free radical research.

[27]  A. Bendich.  Biological Functions of Dietary Carotenoids , 1993, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[28]  P. Hugueney,et al.  Molecular identification of zeaxanthin epoxidase of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, a gene involved in abscisic acid biosynthesis and corresponding to the ABA locus of Arabidopsis thaliana. , 1996, The EMBO journal.

[29]  N. Misawa,et al.  Structure and functional analysis of a marine bacterial carotenoid biosynthesis gene cluster and astaxanthin biosynthetic pathway proposed at the gene level , 1995, Journal of bacteriology.

[30]  J. Bertram.  The chemoprevention of cancer by dietary carotenoids: Studies in mouse and human cells , 1994 .

[31]  G. Britton,et al.  Structure and properties of carotenoids in relation to function , 1995, FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

[32]  G. Ditta,et al.  Plasmids related to the broad host range vector, pRK290, useful for gene cloning and for monitoring gene expression. , 1985, Plasmid.

[33]  G. Sandmann,et al.  Isolation of a carotenoid biosynthesis gene coding for ζ‐carotene desaturase from Anabaena PCC 7120 by heterologous complementation , 1993 .