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Novel β-Carotene and Astaxanthin-Producing Marine Planococcus sp.: Insights into Carotenogenesis Regulation and Genetic Aspects

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Abstract

Astaxanthin and β-carotene are the most prominent carotenoids extensively used in pharmaceutics. Here, we present a halotolerant bacterium from Lake Wadi El-Natrun capable of producing astaxanthin and β-carotene analyzed by HPLC, ESI–MS, and infrared spectroscopy. The phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses classified the isolate as a novel strain of the genus Planococcus, for which the name Planococcus sp. Eg-Natrun is proposed. Carotenoid biosynthesis can exceptionally occur in a light-inducible or constitutive manner. The maximum carotenoid yields were 610 ± 13 µg/g (~ 38% β-carotene and ~ 21% astaxanthin) in a minimal medium with acetate and 1024 ± 53 µg/g dry cells in a rich marine medium. The carotenogenesis incentives (e.g., acetate) and disincentives (e.g., methomyl) were discussed. Moreover, we successfully isolated the CrtE gene, one of the astaxanthin biosynthesis genes, from the unknown genome using a consensus-based degenerate PCR approach. To our knowledge, this is the first report elucidating astaxanthin and β-carotene in the genus Planococcus.

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Data Availability

DNA sequence data that support the findings of this study have been deposited in GenBank with the accession codes: “EU825769” and “EU854450” for the 16S ribosomal RNA gene and GGPP synthase-encoding gene (CrtE), respectively. Other data generated or analyzed within this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Cairo University’s internal funding. The authors thank Prof. Sayed Gouda (University of Derby) for insightful discussions regarding selecting the origin of the isolate. The authors acknowledge the support from the Biochemical & Genetic Analysis Unit (National Research Center, Egypt) for HPLC/ESI-MS analysis and the Microbiology Unit (Micro Analytical Center, Cairo University) for performing the phenotypic characterization of the isolate.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biochemistry Division, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

    Ahmed Sayed, Iman Elbalasy & Mervat S. Mohamed

  2. B CUBE Center for Molecular Bioengineering, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Ahmed Sayed

  3. Peter-Debye Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany

    Iman Elbalasy

  4. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Mervat S. Mohamed

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  1. Ahmed Sayed
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Contributions

A. S. and M. S. M. designed the experiments. A. S. performed the research work and the data analysis. M. S. M. supervised the research. A. S. wrote the paper. A. S. and I. E. polished the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ahmed Sayed or Mervat S. Mohamed.

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Sayed, A., Elbalasy, I. & Mohamed, M.S. Novel β-Carotene and Astaxanthin-Producing Marine Planococcus sp.: Insights into Carotenogenesis Regulation and Genetic Aspects. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 195, 217–235 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-022-04148-4

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