Frontiers in Microbiology (Mar 2022)

Whole Genome Sequencing and RNA-seq-Driven Discovery of New Targets That Affect Carotenoid Synthesis in Phaffia rhodozyma

  • Zhihui Shi,
  • Zhihui Shi,
  • Xiaoxian He,
  • Xiaoxian He,
  • Hailiang Zhang,
  • Xuena Guo,
  • Yanfei Cheng,
  • Xuelian Liu,
  • Zhaoyue Wang,
  • Xiuping He,
  • Xiuping He

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.837894
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Carotenoids are unsaturated compounds with terpene groups. Among them, astaxanthin has strong antioxidant properties. It is widely used in aquaculture, food, medicine, and cosmetics with a broad market prospect. Phaffia rhodozyma is an important microorganism that synthesizes astaxanthin, but its wild strains have low pigment content, long growth cycle, and low fermentation temperature. Therefore, it is important to research the genetic improvement of the physiological and biochemical properties of P. rhodozyma. In this study, the atmospheric and room temperature plasma mutagenesis technology was adopted, through the functional evolution of the carotenoid production performance; then, through the comparative analysis of the genomics and transcriptomics of the wild strain and evolved strain, the key factor GST1 gene that affects carotenoid synthesis was discovered.

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