CIIMAR-Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Novo Edifício do Terminal de Cruzeiros de Leixões, Avenida General Norton de Matos, s/n, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal.
FCUP-Faculty of Science, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.
Biomolecules. 2021 May 15;11(5):735. doi: 10.3390/biom11050735.
Carotenoids are tetraterpenoids molecules present in all photosynthetic organisms, responsible for better light-harvesting and energy dissipation in photosynthesis. In cyanobacteria, the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids is well described, and apart from the more common compounds (e.g., β-carotene, zeaxanthin, and echinenone), specific carotenoids can also be found, such as myxoxanthophyll. Moreover, cyanobacteria have a protein complex called orange carotenoid protein (OCP) as a mechanism of photoprotection. Although cyanobacteria are not the organism of choice for the industrial production of carotenoids, the optimisation of their production and the evaluation of their bioactive capacity demonstrate that these organisms may indeed be a potential candidate for future pigment production in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable approach of biorefinery. Carotenoids-rich extracts are described as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumoral agents and are proposed for feed and cosmetical industries. Thus, several strategies for the optimisation of a cyanobacteria-based bioprocess for the obtention of pigments were described. This review aims to give an overview of carotenoids from cyanobacteria not only in terms of their chemistry but also in terms of their biotechnological applicability and the advances and the challenges in the production of such compounds.
类胡萝卜素是存在于所有光合生物中的四萜类分子，负责更好地进行光合作用中的光捕获和能量耗散。在蓝细菌中，类胡萝卜素的生物合成途径得到了很好的描述，除了更常见的化合物（如β-胡萝卜素、玉米黄质和岩藻黄质）外，还可以发现特定的类胡萝卜素，如岩藻黄质。此外，蓝细菌有一种叫做橙色类胡萝卜素蛋白（OCP）的蛋白质复合物，作为一种光保护机制。尽管蓝细菌不是工业生产类胡萝卜素的首选生物，但对其生产的优化和生物活性能力的评估表明，这些生物确实可能成为未来生物炼制中更环保和可持续的色素生产的潜在候选者。富含类胡萝卜素的提取物被描述为抗氧化剂、抗炎剂和抗肿瘤剂，并被提议用于饲料和化妆品行业。因此，已经描述了几种优化基于蓝细菌的生物工艺以获得色素的策略。本文综述了蓝细菌类胡萝卜素的化学性质、生物技术应用以及这些化合物生产的进展和挑战。
