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Review
. 2023 May 16;9(5):578.
doi: 10.3390/jof9050578.

Industrially Important Fungal Carotenoids: Advancements in Biotechnological Production and Extraction

Tahira Naz  1 , Samee Ullah  1   2 , Yusuf Nazir  1   3   4 , Shaoqi Li  1 , Bushra Iqbal  1 , Qing Liu  1 , Hassan Mohamed  1   5 , Yuanda Song  1
Affiliations
Review

Industrially Important Fungal Carotenoids: Advancements in Biotechnological Production and Extraction

Tahira Naz et al. J Fungi (Basel). .

Abstract

Carotenoids are lipid-soluble compounds that are present in nature, including plants and microorganisms such as fungi, certain bacteria, and algae. In fungi, they are widely present in almost all taxonomic classifications. Fungal carotenoids have gained special attention due to their biochemistry and the genetics of their synthetic pathway. The antioxidant potential of carotenoids may help fungi survive longer in their natural environment. Carotenoids may be produced in greater quantities using biotechnological methods than by chemical synthesis or plant extraction. The initial focus of this review is on industrially important carotenoids in the most advanced fungal and yeast strains, with a brief description of their taxonomic classification. Biotechnology has long been regarded as the most suitable alternative way of producing natural pigment from microbes due to their immense capacity to accumulate these pigments. So, this review mainly presents the recent progress in the genetic modification of native and non-native producers to modify the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway for enhanced carotenoid production, as well as factors affecting carotenoid biosynthesis in fungal strains and yeast, and proposes various extraction methods to obtain high yields of carotenoids in an attempt to find suitable greener extraction methods. Finally, a brief description of the challenges regarding the commercialization of these fungal carotenoids and the solution is also given.

Keywords: biosynthetic pathways; extraction; fungal carotenoids; genetic modification.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structure of a few major carotenes and xanthophylls.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biosynthesis pathway for astaxanthin production in Mucor and X. dendrorhous. Green fonts show the similar precursors and genes involved in initial isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway of both fungi and yeast. The left side of the image with blue fonts represents the proposed astaxanthin biosynthesis pathway in Mucor and the right side with red fonts represents the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway in red yeast X. dendrorhous.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Various carotenoid extraction methods.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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