Biotechnological production of zeaxanthin by microorganisms

Publication date: Available online 14 November 2017 Source:Trends in Food Science & Technology Author(s): Yating Zhang, Zhen Liu, Jianan Sun, Changhu Xue, Xiangzhao Mao Background Zeaxanthin is a natural xanthophyll carotenoid that is widely produced by plants, algae and microorganisms and plays a critical role in the prevention of age-related eye diseases, such as macular degeneration and cataracts. Zeaxanthin is also used in the food, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries because of its strong antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. To date, zeaxanthin has been primarily produced by extraction from natural resources, especially plants, which is costly and environmentally unfriendly. The biosynthesis of zeaxanthin by microorganisms has been reported in lots of works to provide another potential route for zeaxanthin production. Scope and approach In this review, we discuss the zeaxanthin biosynthetic pathway, naturally occurring zeaxanthin-accumulating microorganisms containing bacteria and microalgae, the optimization of fermentation conditions using these microorganisms, and zeaxanthin production using microbial cells factory constructed by metabolic engineering. The different metabolic engineering strategies and the zeaxanthin-accumulating level of the reviewed wild and engineered microorganisms are also considered. Furthermore, this work presents perspectives concerning the microbial production of zeaxanthin, especially the trends to construct the me...
Source: Trends in Food Science and Technology - Category: Food Science Source Type: research