미생물에 의한 카로티노이드 생산 : 생물학적 기능성 및 상업적 적용

Carotenoids are isoprenoids with a long polyene chain containing 3 to 15 conjugated double bonds, which determines their absorption spectrum. They typically consist of a C40 hydrocarbon backbone often modified by different oxygen-containing functional groups, to yield cyclic or acyclic xanthophylls. Much work has also been focused on the identification, production, and utilization of natural sources of carotenoid (plants, microorganisms and crustacean by-products) as an alternative to the synthetic pigment which currently covers most of the world markets. Nevertheless, only a few carotenoids (β-carotene, lycopene, astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, and lutein) can be produced commercially by fermentation or isolation from the small number of abundant natural sources. The market and demand for carotenoids is anticipated to increase dramatically with the discovery that carotenoids exhibit significant anti-carcinogenic activities and play an important role in the prevention of chronic diseases. The increasing importance of carotenoids in the feed, nutraceutical food and pharmaceutical markets has renewed by efforts to find ways of producing additional carotenoid structures in useful quantities. Because microorganisms and plants synthesize hundreds of different complex chemical carotenoid structures and a number of carotenoid biosynthetic pathways have been elucidated on a molecular level, metabolic and genetic engineering of microorganisms can provide a means towards economic production of carotenoid structures that are otherwise inaccessible. The aim of this article is to review our current understanding of carotenoid formation, to explain the perceived benefits of carotenoid in the diet and review the efforts that have been made to increase carotenoid in certain microorganisms.