Fate of carotenoids in yeasts: synthesis and cleavage

Abstract

Carotenoids and their cleavage products (norisoprenoids) have excellent functional properties with diverse applications in foods, medicaments, cosmetics, etc. Carotenoids can be oxidatively cleaved through nonspecific reactions or by carotenoid cleavage oxygenases (CCOs), the product of which could further modify food flavor. This review provides comprehensive information on both carotenoid synthesis and cleavage processes with emphasis on enzyme characterization and biosynthetic pathway optimization. The use of interdisciplinary approaches of bioengineering and computer-aided experimental technology for key enzyme modification and systematic pathway design is beneficial to monitor metabolic pathways and assess pathway bottlenecks, which could efficiently lead to accumulation of carotenoids in microorganisms. The identification of CCOs spatial structures isolated from different species has made a significant contribution to the current state of knowledge. Current trends in carotenoid-related flavor modification are also discussed. In particular, we propose the carotenoid-synthesizing yeast Rhodotorula spp. for the production of food bioactive compounds. Understanding the behavior underlying the formation of norisoprenoids from carotenoids using interdisciplinary approaches may point toward other areas of investigation that could lead to better exploiting the potential use of autochthonous yeast in flavor enhancement.

Keywords:

• Carotenoids
• metabolic engineering
• carotenoid cleavage oxygenases
• Rhodotorula
• flavor modification

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Ai-Hua Li from College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, for the excellent technical assistance in references analysis.

Author contribution

Qian-Wei Zhang and Cai-Lin Kong are the joint first author. Qian-Wei Zhang and Cai-Lin Kong drafted the original manuscript. Critical inputs and corrections were successively provided by Cai-Lin Kong during the preparation process. Yong-Sheng Tao took part in conceptualization, methodology, resources, validation, formal analysis, writing-review and editing, visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was accomplished under the auspices of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972199), and the Shaanxi Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2020JC-22).