Sustainable production of astaxanthin in microorganisms: the past, present, and future

Abstract

Astaxanthin (3,3’-dihydroxy-4,4’-diketo-β-carotene) is a type of C40 carotenoid with remarkable antioxidant characteristics, showing significant application prospects in many fields. Traditionally, the astaxanthin is mainly obtained from chemical synthesis and natural acquisition, with both approaches having many limitations and not capable of meeting the growing market demand. In order to cope with these challenges, novel techniques, e.g., the innovative cell engineering strategies, have been developed to increase the astaxanthin production. In this review, we first elaborated the biosynthetic pathway of astaxanthin, with the key enzymes and their functions discussed in the metabolic process. Then, we summarized the conventional, non-genetic strategies to promote the production of astaxanthin, including the methods of exogenous additives, mutagenesis, and adaptive evolution. Lastly, we reviewed comprehensively the latest studies on the synthesis of astaxanthin in various recombinant microorganisms based on the concept of microbial cell factory. Furthermore, we have proposed several novel technologies for improving the astaxanthin accumulation in several model species of microorganisms.

Keywords:

• Astaxanthin
• cell factory
• CrtW
• CrtZ
• genetic modification
• synthetic biology

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2019YFA0904900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972815 and 42176124), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019ZD17, ZR2020ZD23, and ZR2021MC051), the scientific research fund of Binzhou Medical University (BY2021KYQD25 and BY2021KYQD28), and the Open Fund of Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Stress (SPKLPS202001). We are grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions, which have significantly improved this manuscript.