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1.
Fruit ripening: dynamics and integrated analysis of carotenoids and anthocyanins.
Kapoor, L, Simkin, AJ, George Priya Doss, C, Siva, R
BMC plant biology. 2022;(1):27
Abstract
BACKGROUND Fruits are vital food resources as they are loaded with bioactive compounds varying with different stages of ripening. As the fruit ripens, a dynamic color change is observed from green to yellow to red due to the biosynthesis of pigments like chlorophyll, carotenoids, and anthocyanins. Apart from making the fruit attractive and being a visual indicator of the ripening status, pigments add value to a ripened fruit by making them a source of nutraceuticals and industrial products. As the fruit matures, it undergoes biochemical changes which alter the pigment composition of fruits. RESULTS The synthesis, degradation and retention pathways of fruit pigments are mediated by hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors. Manipulation of the underlying regulatory mechanisms during fruit ripening suggests ways to enhance the desired pigments in fruits by biotechnological interventions. Here we report, in-depth insight into the dynamics of a pigment change in ripening and the regulatory mechanisms in action. CONCLUSIONS This review emphasizes the role of pigments as an asset to a ripened fruit as they augment the nutritive value, antioxidant levels and the net carbon gain of fruits; pigments are a source for fruit biofortification have tremendous industrial value along with being a tool to predict the harvest. This report will be of great utility to the harvesters, traders, consumers, and natural product divisions to extract the leading nutraceutical and industrial potential of preferred pigments biosynthesized at different fruit ripening stages.
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2.
Bioactive Compounds for Skin Health: A Review.
Michalak, M, Pierzak, M, Kręcisz, B, Suliga, E
Nutrients. 2021;(1)
Abstract
Human skin is continually changing. The condition of the skin largely depends on the individual's overall state of health. A balanced diet plays an important role in the proper functioning of the human body, including the skin. The present study draws attention to bioactive substances, i.e., vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, polyphenols, and carotenoids, with a particular focus on their effects on the condition of the skin. The aim of the study was to review the literature on the effects of bioactive substances on skin parameters such as elasticity, firmness, wrinkles, senile dryness, hydration and color, and to define their role in the process of skin ageing.
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3.
Carotenoid Biosynthesis and Plastid Development in Plants: The Role of Light.
Quian-Ulloa, R, Stange, C
International journal of molecular sciences. 2021;(3)
Abstract
Light is an important cue that stimulates both plastid development and biosynthesis of carotenoids in plants. During photomorphogenesis or de-etiolation, photoreceptors are activated and molecular factors for carotenoid and chlorophyll biosynthesis are induced thereof. In fruits, light is absorbed by chloroplasts in the early stages of ripening, which allows a gradual synthesis of carotenoids in the peel and pulp with the onset of chromoplasts' development. In roots, only a fraction of light reaches this tissue, which is not required for carotenoid synthesis, but it is essential for root development. When exposed to light, roots start greening due to chloroplast development. However, the colored taproot of carrot grown underground presents a high carotenoid accumulation together with chromoplast development, similar to citrus fruits during ripening. Interestingly, total carotenoid levels decrease in carrots roots when illuminated and develop chloroplasts, similar to normal roots exposed to light. The recent findings of the effect of light quality upon the induction of molecular factors involved in carotenoid synthesis in leaves, fruit, and roots are discussed, aiming to propose consensus mechanisms in order to contribute to the understanding of carotenoid synthesis regulation by light in plants.
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4.
Rhodotorula toruloides: an ideal microbial cell factory to produce oleochemicals, carotenoids, and other products.
Zhao, Y, Song, B, Li, J, Zhang, J
World journal of microbiology & biotechnology. 2021;(1):13
Abstract
Requirement of clean energy sources urges us to find substitutes for fossil fuels. Microorganisms provide an option to produce feedstock for biofuel production by utilizing inexpensive, renewable biomass. Rhodotorula toruloides (Rhodosporidium toruloides), a non-conventional oleaginous yeast, can accumulate intracellular lipids (single cell oil, SCO) more than 70% of its cell dry weight. At present, the SCO-based biodiesel is not a price-competitive fuel to the petroleum diesel. Many efforts are made to cut the cost of SCO by strengthening the performance of genetically modified R. toruloides strains and by valorization of low-cost biomass, including crude glycerol, lignocellulosic hydrolysates, food and agro waste, wastewater, and volatile fatty acids. Besides, optimization of fermentation and SCO recovery processes are carefully studied as well. Recently, new R. toruloides strains are developed via metabolic engineering and synthetic biology methods to produce value-added chemicals, such as sesquiterpenes, fatty acid esters, fatty alcohols, carotenoids, and building block chemicals. This review summarizes recent advances in the main aspects of R. toruloides studies, namely, construction of strains with new traits, valorization of low-cost biomass, process detection and optimization, and product recovery. In general, R. toruloides is a promising microbial cell factory for production of biochemicals.
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5.
Plant apocarotenoids: from retrograde signaling to interspecific communication.
Moreno, JC, Mi, J, Alagoz, Y, Al-Babili, S
The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology. 2021;(2):351-375
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Abstract
Carotenoids are isoprenoid compounds synthesized by all photosynthetic and some non-photosynthetic organisms. They are essential for photosynthesis and contribute to many other aspects of a plant's life. The oxidative breakdown of carotenoids gives rise to the formation of a diverse family of essential metabolites called apocarotenoids. This metabolic process either takes place spontaneously through reactive oxygen species or is catalyzed by enzymes generally belonging to the CAROTENOID CLEAVAGE DIOXYGENASE family. Apocarotenoids include the phytohormones abscisic acid and strigolactones (SLs), signaling molecules and growth regulators. Abscisic acid and SLs are vital in regulating plant growth, development and stress response. SLs are also an essential component in plants' rhizospheric communication with symbionts and parasites. Other apocarotenoid small molecules, such as blumenols, mycorradicins, zaxinone, anchorene, β-cyclocitral, β-cyclogeranic acid, β-ionone and loliolide, are involved in plant growth and development, and/or contribute to different processes, including arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis, abiotic stress response, plant-plant and plant-herbivore interactions and plastid retrograde signaling. There are also indications for the presence of structurally unidentified linear cis-carotene-derived apocarotenoids, which are presumed to modulate plastid biogenesis and leaf morphology, among other developmental processes. Here, we provide an overview on the biology of old, recently discovered and supposed plant apocarotenoid signaling molecules, describing their biosynthesis, developmental and physiological functions, and role as a messenger in plant communication.
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Carotenoids from Cyanobacteria: Biotechnological Potential and Optimization Strategies.
Pagels, F, Vasconcelos, V, Guedes, AC
Biomolecules. 2021;(5)
Abstract
Carotenoids are tetraterpenoids molecules present in all photosynthetic organisms, responsible for better light-harvesting and energy dissipation in photosynthesis. In cyanobacteria, the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids is well described, and apart from the more common compounds (e.g., β-carotene, zeaxanthin, and echinenone), specific carotenoids can also be found, such as myxoxanthophyll. Moreover, cyanobacteria have a protein complex called orange carotenoid protein (OCP) as a mechanism of photoprotection. Although cyanobacteria are not the organism of choice for the industrial production of carotenoids, the optimisation of their production and the evaluation of their bioactive capacity demonstrate that these organisms may indeed be a potential candidate for future pigment production in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable approach of biorefinery. Carotenoids-rich extracts are described as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumoral agents and are proposed for feed and cosmetical industries. Thus, several strategies for the optimisation of a cyanobacteria-based bioprocess for the obtention of pigments were described. This review aims to give an overview of carotenoids from cyanobacteria not only in terms of their chemistry but also in terms of their biotechnological applicability and the advances and the challenges in the production of such compounds.
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Singlet oxygen oxidation products of carotenoids, fatty acids and phenolic prenyllipids.
Kruk, J, Szymańska, R
Journal of photochemistry and photobiology. B, Biology. 2021;:112148
Abstract
Singlet oxygen (1O2) is the major reactive oxygen species ROS causing photooxidative stress in plants which is formed predominantly in the reaction center of photosystem II during photosynthesis. To avoid deleterious effects of 1O2 oxygen on photosynthetic membrane components, plant synthesize a variety of 1O2 quenchers of lipophilic character, such as carotenoids or phenolic prenyllipids (tocopherols, plastochromanol-8, plastoquinol). In the process of chemical quenching of 1O2 by the antioxidants, both short-lived products, such as oxidized carotenoids, or relative long-lived compounds, such as oxidized phenolic prenyllipids are formed. The other target of 1O2 are unsaturated fatty acids of membrane lipids that undergo peroxidation as a result of the reaction. Some of the 1O2 oxidation products, like β-cyclocitral can be components of 1O2-signallingsignaling pathway leading to acclimatory responses of plants, while some others further fulfill antioxidant functions, like hydroxy-plastochromanol or hydroxy-plastoquinol. As most of the 1O2 oxidation products are specific compounds formed only as a results of 1O2 action, they can be very useful, specific molecular markers of 1O2-dependent oxidative stress in vivo.
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Toward the 'golden' era: The status in uncovering the regulatory control of carotenoid accumulation in plants.
Sun, T, Li, L
Plant science : an international journal of experimental plant biology. 2020;:110331
Abstract
Carotenoids are essential pigments to plants and important natural products to humans. Carotenoids as both primary and specialized metabolites fulfill multifaceted functions in plants. As such, carotenoid accumulation (a net process of biosynthesis, degradation and sequestration) is subjected to complicated regulation throughout plant life cycle in response to developmental and environmental signals. Investigation of transcriptional regulation of carotenoid metabolic genes remains the focus in understanding the regulatory control of carotenoid accumulation. While discovery of bona fide carotenoid metabolic regulators is still challenging, the recent progress of identification of various transcription factors and regulators helps us to construct hierarchical regulatory network of carotenoid accumulation. The elucidation of carotenoid regulatory mechanisms at protein level and in chromoplast provides some insights into post-translational regulation of carotenogenic enzymes and carotenoid sequestration in plastid sink. This review briefly describes the pathways and main flux-controlling steps for carotenoid accumulation in plants. It highlights our recent understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying carotenoid accumulation at both transcriptional and post-translational levels. It also discusses the opportunities to expand toolbox for further shedding light upon the intrinsic regulation of carotenoid accumulation in plants.
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Silver Island Film for Enhancing Light Harvesting in Natural Photosynthetic Proteins.
Kowalska, D, Szalkowski, M, Sulowska, K, Buczynska, D, Niedziolka-Jonsson, J, Jonsson-Niedziolka, M, Kargul, J, Lokstein, H, Mackowski, S
International journal of molecular sciences. 2020;(7)
Abstract
The effects of combining naturally evolved photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes with inorganic functional materials, especially plasmonically active metallic nanostructures, have been a widely studied topic in the last few decades. Besides other applications, it seems to be reasonable using such hybrid systems for designing future biomimetic solar cells. In this paper, we describe selected results that point out to various aspects of the interactions between photosynthetic complexes and plasmonic excitations in Silver Island Films (SIFs). In addition to simple light-harvesting complexes, like peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP) or the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex, we also discuss the properties of large, photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs) and Photosystem I (PSI)-both prokaryotic PSI core complexes and eukaryotic PSI supercomplexes with attached antenna clusters (PSI-LHCI)-deposited on SIF substrates.
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10.
Role of carotenoids and retinoids during heart development.
Sirbu, IO, Chiş, AR, Moise, AR
Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular and cell biology of lipids. 2020;(11):158636
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Abstract
The nutritional requirements of the developing embryo are complex. In the case of dietary vitamin A (retinol, retinyl esters and provitamin A carotenoids), maternal derived nutrients serve as precursors to signaling molecules such as retinoic acid, which is required for embryonic patterning and organogenesis. Despite variations in the composition and levels of maternal vitamin A, embryonic tissues need to generate a precise amount of retinoic acid to avoid congenital malformations. Here, we summarize recent findings regarding the role and metabolism of vitamin A during heart development and we survey the association of genes known to affect retinoid metabolism or signaling with various inherited disorders. A better understanding of the roles of vitamin A in the heart and of the factors that affect retinoid metabolism and signaling can help design strategies to meet nutritional needs and to prevent birth defects and disorders associated with altered retinoid metabolism. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Carotenoids recent advances in cell and molecular biology edited by Johannes von Lintig and Loredana Quadro.