Volume 2, Issue 2 pp. 107-117
Review

Biotechnological Production of Astaxanthin through Metabolic Engineering of Yeasts

Lidan Ye

Lidan Ye

Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Institute of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, No. 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, China.

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Wenping Xie

Wenping Xie

Institute of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, No. 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, China.

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Pingping Zhou

Pingping Zhou

Institute of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, No. 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou 310027, China.

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Hongwei Yu

Corresponding Author

Hongwei Yu

Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.Search for more papers by this author
First published: 25 February 2015
Citations: 14

Abstract

Astaxanthin is a highly valued carotenoid with growing market in aquaculture, food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The market demand for bio-derived astaxanthin and the insufficient efficiency of astaxanthin biosynthesis drive the advances in metabolic engineering of native astaxanthin producers and heterologous hosts. The recent research progress in engineering of astaxanthin biosynthesis in the red-pigmented heterobasidiomycetous yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous, the food-grade noncarotenogenic yeast Candida utilis, the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica and the chassis organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae is reviewed, the advances in the development of pathway engineering tools are discussed, and future strategies for further improving biotechnological production of astaxanthin in yeasts are proposed.

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