Microbial astaxanthin biosynthesis: recent achievements, challenges, and commercialization outlook.

Microbial astaxanthin biosynthesis: recent achievements, challenges, and commercialization outlook. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2020 May 13;: Authors: Zhang C, Chen X, Too HP Abstract Astaxanthin is a natural pigment, known for its strong antioxidant activity and numerous health benefits to human and animals. Its antioxidant activity is known to be substantially greater than β-carotene and about a thousand times more effective than vitamin E. The potential health benefits have generated a growing commercial interest, and the escalating demand has prompted the exploration of alternative supply chain. Astaxanthin naturally occurs in many sea creatures such as trout, shrimp, and microalgae, some fungi, bacteria, and flowering plants, acting to protect hosts against environmental stress and adverse conditions. Due to the rapid growth and simple growth medium requirement, microbes, such as the microalga, Haematococcus pluvialis, and the fungus Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, have been developed to produce astaxanthin. With advances in metabolic engineering, non-carotenogenic microbes, such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, have been purposed to produce astaxanthin and significant progress has been achieved. Here, we review the recent achievements in microbial astaxanthin biosynthesis (with reference to metabolic engineering strategies) and extraction methods, current challenges (technical and regulatory), and commercializat...
Source: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Microbiol Biotechnol Source Type: research