Bixin is commercially important and increasingly in demand as an apocarotenoid pigment derived from the seed coats of the tropical shrub Bixa orellana. It has been widely used in food and cosmetics for a very longer time. Recently, the biosynthetic pathway of bixin has been elucidated and three genes from B. orellana govern bixin synthesis from the precursor lycopene. These genes code for lycopene cleavage dioxygenase, bixin aldehyde dehydrogenase, and norbixin carboxyl methyltransferase, which catalyze the sequential conversion of lycopene into bixin. Based on available chemical data and by analogy to biosynthetic pathway for bixin, comparative genome sequence analysis has been carried out. We have identified and functionally characterized that bixin coding genes are not only present in Bixa, but also in Crocus and Vitis. Our chromatographic study based on TLC, FT-IR and GC-MS shows evidence of presence of bixin in the other two organisms. This is the first report and Crocus and Vitis could be an alternative and competitive source for natural bixin production. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Siva R

Department of Biotechnology

School of Bio Sciences and Technology

Vellore Campus

Doss F.P

Kundu K

Satyanarayana V.S.V

Kumar V.

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

Industrial Crops and Products

Carotenoids: Properties, Processing and Applications

Overview of carotenoids and beneficial effects on human health

The effect of salt stress on pigment synthesis and antioxidant enzyme activity as well as in the genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of bixin was studied. The 14-day germinated seedlings of Bixa orellana were induced into the various NaCl concentration (0, 25, 50, 75, 100 mM). After 45 days, leaves were taken for pigment analysis, antioxidant assays, and gene expression analysis to study the response of salt stress. The pigment content such as chlorophyll level was increased upon salt stress with a reduction in total carotenoid clearly indicating the adaptability of plants towards the stressed state. The level of β-carotene was increased in the highest concentration of salt stress treatment. The secondary metabolites such as bixin and abscisic acid (ABA) content were also high in elevated concentration of salt-treated seedling than control. The antioxidant enzyme activity was increased with the highest dose of salt stress suggesting the antioxidant enzymes to protect the plant from the deleterious effects. The mRNA transcript gene of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway such as phytoene synthase (PSY), 1-deoxyxylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS), phytoene desaturase (PDS), beta-lycopene cyclase (LCY-β), epsilon lycopene cyclase (LCY-ε), carboxyl methyl transferase (CMT), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ADH), lycopene cleavage dioxygenase (LCD), and carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase (CCD) showed differential expression pattern under salt stress. In addendum, we studied the co-expression network analysis of gene to assess the co-related genes associated in the biosynthesis pathway of carotenoid. From the co-expression analysis result showed, the LCY, PDS, and PSY genes were closely correlated with other genes. These finding may provide insight to the plants to exist in the stress condition and to improve the industrially important pigment production. © 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Functional & Integrative Genomics

Implication of salt stress induces changes in pigment production, antioxidant enzyme activity, and qRT-PCR expression of genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway of Bixa orellana L.

Bixin and crocin are natural apocarotenoids utilized as food colorants and additives in food industries worldwide. For safety assessment, it is necessary to understand the biological interaction of food colorants. In our present study, we report the interaction of two apocarotenoids with bovine serum albumin (BSA) at physiological pH using spectroscopic techniques and in silico tools. The binding constant and the mode of binding sites have been studied. The enthalpic and entropic contribution to the intermolecular binding event was analyzed and it was found that the contribution of hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions was dominant. The adverse temperature dependence in the unusual static quenching is found to b. reasonable consequence of the large activation energy requirement in the binding process, which is required to overcome the fundamental block and i. direct result of the unique microstructure of the binding sites. To confirm the experimental analysis, we investigated the binding patterns using different in silico tools. combination of molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and toxicity analysis was performed, and the obtained results revealed that both the apocarotenoids had high binding affinity wit. binding energy of −5.44 and −5.93 kcal/mol for bixin and crocin, respectively, with no toxic effects and are in accordance with our experimental analysis. The results directly revealed the flexibility of the protein toward bixin and crocin which ha. great impact on the interaction. Thus bixin and crocin can guardedly be used as food colorants in food industries. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor &amp; Francis Group.

Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics

Structural insights into the binding mode and conformational changes of BSA induced by bixin and crocin

Carotenoids are isoprenoid pigments synthesized exclusively by plants and microorganisms and play critical roles in light harvesting, photoprotection, attracting pollinators and phytohormone production. In recent years, carotenoids have been used for their health benefits due to their high antioxidant activity and are extensively utilized in food, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical industries. Regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis occurs throughout the life cycle of plants, with vibrant changes in composition based on developmental needs and responses to external environmental stimuli. With advancements in metabolic engineering techniques, there has been tremendous progress in the production of industrially valuable secondary metabolites such as carotenoids. Application of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology has become essential for the successful and improved production of carotenoids. Synthetic biology is an emerging discipline; metabolic engineering approaches may provide insights into novel ideas for biosynthetic pathways. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge on carotenoid biosynthetic pathways and genetic engineering of carotenoids to improve their nutritional value. In addition, we investigated synthetic biological approaches for the production of carotenoids. Theoretical biology approaches that may aid in understanding the biological sciences are discussed in this review. A combination of theoretical knowledge and experimental strategies may improve the production of industrially relevant secondary metabolites. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Journal of Biotechnology

Prospects and progress in the production of valuable carotenoids: Insights from metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and computational approaches

The current study was undertaken to analyse the effect of short-term UV-B and UV-C radiations in provoking carotenoid biosynthesis in Bixa orellana. Seeds of B. orellana were germinated and exposed to the short term UV pre-treatment under controlled environmental condition for 5 days. The UV treated young seedlings response in pigment contents; antioxidant enzyme activity and mRNA gene expression level were analysed. The pigment content such as chlorophyll was increased in both UV-B and UV-C treated seedlings, but the total carotenoid level was decreased when compared to the control seedlings this can be attributed to the plant adaptability to survive in a stressed condition. The β-carotene level was increased in UV-B, and UV-C treated young seedlings. No significant changes have occurred in the secondary pigment such as bixin and ABA. The activity of the antioxidant enzymes such as catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase was significantly increased in UV-B treated seedlings when compared to the UV-C treated seedlings and control. The mRNA expression of the genes involved in bixin biosynthesis pathways such as DXS, PSY, PDS, LCY-β, LCY-ε, CMT, LCD, ADH and CCD genes showed different expression pattern in UV-B and UV-C treated young seedlings. Further we analysed the gene co-expression network to identify the genes which are mainly involved in carotenoid/bixin biosynthesis pathway. Form our findings the CCD, LCY, PDS, ZDS and PSY showed a close interaction. The result of our study shows that the short term UV-B and UV-C radiations induce pigment content, antioxidant enzyme activity and different gene expression pattern allowing the plant to survive in the oxidative stress condition. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology

Effect of UV radiation and its implications on carotenoid pathway in Bixa orellana L.

Choice Reviews Online

Notebooks from New Guinea: field notes of a tropical biologist

Trends in Microbiology

Finding novel metabolic genes through plant-prokaryote phylogenomics

Bioinformatics

Homology search for genes

Plant Physiology

Implications of Carotenoid Biosynthetic Genes in Apocarotenoid Formation during the Stigma Development of Crocus sativus and Its Closer Relatives

Trends in Plant Science

Oxidative tailoring of carotenoids: a prospect towards novel functions in plants

Molecular characterization of bixin—An important industrial product

Journal	Data powered by TypesetIndustrial Crops and Products
Publisher	Data powered by TypesetElsevier BV
ISSN	0926-6690
Open Access	0