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Evaluation and screening of efficient promoters to improve astaxanthin production in Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
  • Published:
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Astaxanthin is a valuable carotenoid that is widely used in the aquaculture, food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous is a carotenoid-synthesizing yeast strain that produces astaxanthin as its main pigment. Although metabolic engineering using gene manipulation is a valuable way to improve astaxanthin production, a gene expression system for X. dendrorhous has been poorly developed. In this study, three known promoters of X. dendrorhous, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) promoter (Pgpd), glucose dehydrogenase (gdh) promoter (Pgdh), and actin (act) promoter (Pact), were evaluated for use in the overexpression of target proteins using green fluorescence protein (GFP) as an expression level indicator protein. The actin promoter, Pact, showed the highest expression level of GFP when compared with Pgpd and Pgdh. Additionally, to obtain new promoters for higher expression of target protein in X. dendrorhous, intracellular GFP intensity was evaluated for 13 candidate promoters. An alcohol dehydrogenase promoter, Padh4, showed more efficient expression of GFP rather than Pact. Overexpression of crtE gene encoding rate-limiting enzyme of carotenoid synthesis under the adh4 promoter yielded an increase in intracellular astaxanthin content of about 1.7-fold compared with the control strain. The promoters identified in this study must be useful for improving carotenoids production in X. dendrorhous.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology, Creation of Innovation Centers for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research Areas (Innovative Bioproduction Kobe, iBioK), MEXT, Japan. Hara KY was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (22760608).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Organization of Advanced Science and Technology, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Kiyotaka Y. Hara, Masao Mochizuki & Michihiro Araki

  2. Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Toshihiko Morita, Yusuke Endo & Akihiko Kondo

Authors
  1. Kiyotaka Y. Hara
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  2. Toshihiko Morita
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  3. Yusuke Endo
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  4. Masao Mochizuki
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  5. Michihiro Araki
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  6. Akihiko Kondo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akihiko Kondo.

Additional information

Kiyotaka Y. Hara and Toshihiko Morita contributed equally in this work.

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Hara, K.Y., Morita, T., Endo, Y. et al. Evaluation and screening of efficient promoters to improve astaxanthin production in Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98, 6787–6793 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-5727-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-5727-2

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