Engineering the β-Carotene Metabolic Pathway of Microalgae Dunaliella To Confirm Its Carotenoid Synthesis Pattern in Comparison To Bacteria and Plants

Abstract

The synthesis mode of all trans -lycopene in bacteria and plants is clear, but there are still doubts in microalgae. Dunaliella is the organism with the highest β-carotene content, and plant-type and bacterial-type enzyme genes have been found in its carotenoid metabolism pathway. In this study, the entire plant-type enzyme gene was completely cloned into Escherichia coli , and high-efficiency expression was obtained, which proved that carotenoid synthesis of algae is similar to that of plants.