Poly-cis carotene pathway in the Scenedesmus mutant C-6D

Abstract

The mutation of Scenedesmus obliquus strain C-6D is expressed in the dark only. Under these conditions, this strain synthesizes acyclic poly-cis carotenes. Cyclic carotenoids like β-carotene or xanthophylls are absent. In the light the normal cyclic carotenes and xanthophylls are synthesized in the all-trans configuration. The poly-cis carotencs present in dark cultures have been analysed and quantitated. It could be shown that these poly-cis carotenes are identical with the poly-cis carotenes synthesized by the tomato mutant Lycopersicon esculentum var. ‘Tangella’. The poly-cis pathways, however, are different regulated in the two organisms. The tomato mutant accumulates prolycopene as the major carotene, whereas the mutant C-6D accumulates mainly pro-ζ-carotene. Furthermore, the mutation in ‘Tangella’ is constitutive in light in contrast to Scenedesmus C-6D. Besides that, Scenedesmus C-6D synthesizes a further cis-carotene isomer of phytofluene as well as of ζ-carotene. The configuration of these carotenes still have to be elucidated. The occurrence of this poly-cis carotene biosynthetic pathway by a mutation of only one enzyme, the phytoene desaturase which, however, is only expressed in darkness under heterotrophic conditions, is discussed.