Metabolic engineering for production of beta-carotene and lycopene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We have engineered a conventional yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to confer a novel biosynthetic pathway for the production of beta-carotene and lycopene by introducing the bacterial carotenoid biosynthesis genes, which are individually surrounded by the promoters and terminators derived from S. cerevisiae. beta-Carotene and lycopene accumulated in the cells of this yeast, which was considered to be a result of the carbon flow for the ergosterol biosynthetic pathway being partially directed to the pathway for the carotenoid production.