Abstract
The carotenoid synthetic genes, crtM and crtN, derived from Staphylococcus aureus, were introduced into B. subtilis, resulting in yellow pigmentation. Absorption maxima of pigments and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry demonstrated that the pigmented strain accumulated two C30 carotenoids, 4,4′-diapolycopene and 4,4′-diaponeurosporene. A survival test using H2O2 revealed that the pigmented strain was more resistant to oxidative stress than the strain harboring an empty-vector. These findings indicate that B. subtilis can produce carotenoids, and the strain accumulating the carotenoids, CarotenoBacillus, will become a basal host for production of C30 carotenoids and evaluation of their antioxidative effects.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. T. Sato for B. subtilis JH642. This work was supported by a grant-in-aid 05A22703a from the Industrial Technology Research Program in 2005 of NEDO Japan to I.M.
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Yoshida, K., Ueda, S. & Maeda, I. Carotenoid production in Bacillus subtilis achieved by metabolic engineering. Biotechnol Lett 31, 1789–1793 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-009-0082-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-009-0082-6