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Carotenoid production and gene expression in an astaxanthin-overproducing Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous mutant strain

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Abstract

The primary carotenoid synthesized by Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous is astaxanthin, which is used as a feed additive in aquaculture. Cell growth kinetics and carotenoid production were correlated with the mRNA levels of the idi, crtE, crtYB, crtI, crtS and crtR genes, and the changes in gene sequence between the wild-type and a carotenoid overproducer XR4 mutant strain were identified. At the late stationary phase, the total carotenoid content in XR4 was fivefold higher than that of the wild-type strain. Additionally, the mRNA levels of crtE and crtS increased during the XR4 growth and were three times higher than the wild-type strain in the late stationary phase. Moreover, the nucleotide sequences of crtYB, crtI and crtR exhibited differences between the strains. Both the higher crtE and crtS transcript levels and the crtYB, crtI and crtR mutations can, at least in part, act to up-regulate the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in the XR4 strain.

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Acknowledgments

L. M. Castelblanco-Matiz and A. Barbachano-Torres thank Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Mexico, for Ph.D. fellowships (219320 and 172824, respectively). This work was partially supported by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, Chile, Fondecyt 1140504.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biotecnología y Bioingeniería, CINVESTAV-IPN, Av. Instituto Politécnico Nacional 2508, Zacatenco, 07360, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

    Lina M. Castelblanco-Matiz, Alejandra Barbachano-Torres, Teresa Ponce-Noyola & Ana C. Ramos-Valdivia

  2. Departamento de Química, CINVESTAV-IPN, 07360, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

    Carlos M. Cerda García-Rojas

  3. Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, UNAM, 54090, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

    César M. Flores-Ortiz

  4. Centro de Biotecnología y Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Las Palmeras 3425, Casilla 653, Santiago, Chile

    Salvador K. Barahona-Crisóstomo, Marcelo E. Baeza-Cancino, Jennifer Alcaíno-Gorman & Víctor H. Cifuentes-Guzmán

Authors
  1. Lina M. Castelblanco-Matiz
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  2. Alejandra Barbachano-Torres
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  3. Teresa Ponce-Noyola
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  4. Ana C. Ramos-Valdivia
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  10. Víctor H. Cifuentes-Guzmán
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Correspondence to Teresa Ponce-Noyola.

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Communicated by Jorge Membrillo-Hernández.

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Castelblanco-Matiz, L.M., Barbachano-Torres, A., Ponce-Noyola, T. et al. Carotenoid production and gene expression in an astaxanthin-overproducing Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous mutant strain. Arch Microbiol 197, 1129–1139 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-015-1153-9

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