Graham Joel E, Lecomte Juliette T J, Bryant Donald A
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
J Nat Prod. 2008 Sep;71(9):1647-50. doi: 10.1021/np800310b. Epub 2008 Aug 21.
A major aromatic, dicarboxylate carotenoid (>15% of total) was isolated from the euryhaline cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. This compound, which was given the common name synechoxanthin (1), has been assigned the structure (all-E) chi,chi-caroten-18,18'-dioic acid by a combination of spectroscopic (UV-vis, FT-IR, (1)H and (13)C NMR, LC-MS) and chemical methods. This discovery conclusively establishes that some cyanobacteria are capable of synthesizing aromatic carotenoids.