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Appl Environ Microbiol, April 1998, p. 1226-1229, Vol. 64, No. 4
0099-2240/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Production of the Carotenoids Lycopene, -Carotene, and Astaxanthin in the Food Yeast Candida utilis

Yutaka Miura,^* Keiji Kondo, Toshiko Saito, Hiroshi Shimada, Paul D. Fraser, and Norihiko Misawa

Central Laboratories for Key Technology, Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd., 1-13-5, Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 236-0004, Japan

Received 3 September 1997/Accepted 2 February 1998

The food-grade yeast Candida utilis has been engineered to confer a novel biosynthetic pathway for the production of carotenoids such as lycopene, -carotene, and astaxanthin. The exogenous carotenoid biosynthesis genes were derived from the epiphytic bacterium Erwinia uredovora and the marine bacterium Agrobacterium aurantiacum. The carotenoid biosynthesis genes were individually modified based on the codon usage of the C. utilis glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene and expressed in C. utilis under the control of the constitutive promoters and terminators derived from C. utilis. The resultant yeast strains accumulated lycopene, -carotene, and astaxanthin in the cells at 1.1, 0.4, and 0.4 mg per g (dry weight) of cells, respectively. This was considered to be a result of the carbon flow into ergosterol biosynthesis being partially redirected to the nonendogenous pathway for carotenoid production.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Central Laboratories for Key Technology, Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd., 1-13-5, Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 236-0004, Japan. Phone: 81 45 788 7216. Fax: 81 45 788 4042. E-mail: yu-miura{at}kirin.co.jp.

Present address: Division of Biochemistry, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom.

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