Carotenoid-based coloration is a common sexually selected trait in birds and fishes (Hill 2006). Their inexorable link to nutrition and their chemical tractability have made carotenoid colors fashionable models for investigating the costs and benefits of sexual features (McGraw 2006). The last decade of work on the signal content of carotenoid colors has uncovered several apparently Corresponde...

Carotenoids constitute an important component of the defense system against photooxidative stress in bacteria. In Azospirillum brasilense Sp7, a nonphotosynthetic rhizobacterium, carotenoid synthesis is controlled by a pair of extracytoplasmic function sigma factors (RpoEs) and their cognate zinc-binding anti-sigma factors (ChrRs). Its genome harbors two copies of the gene encoding geranylgeran...

While elaborate carotenoid-based traits in adult birds may have evolved as honest signals of individual quality in the context of sexual selection or other social interactions, the function of carotenoid-based colours in juveniles is less well understood. We investigated the hypothesis that carotenoid-based nestling colouration has evolved in response to parental preference of intensely coloure...

This review article points out that bananas are an important food for many people in the world. Thus, banana cultivars rich in provitamin A carotenoids may offer a potential food source for alleviating vitamin A deficiency, particularly in developing countries. Many factors are associated with the presently known food sources of vitamin A that limit their effectiveness in improving vitamin A st...

We investigated potential dietary and biochemical bases for carotenoid-based sexual dichromatism in American goldfinches (Carduelis tristis). Captive male and female finches were given access to the same type and amount of carotenoid pigments in the diet during their nuptial molt to assess differences in the degree to which the two sexes incorporated ingested pigments into their plumage. When b...

This review article points out that bananas are an important food for many people in the world. Thus, banana cultivars rich in provitamin A carotenoids may offer a potential food source for alleviating vitamin A deficiency, particularly in developing countries. Many factors are associated with the presently known food sources of vitamin A that limit their effectiveness in improving vitamin A st...

Astaxanthin is a high-value carotenoid used as a pigmentation source in fish aquaculture. In addition, a beneficial role of astaxanthin as a food supplement for humans is becoming evident. The unicellular green alga Haematococcus pluvialis seems to be a suitable source for natural astaxanthin. Astaxanthin accumulation in H. pluvialis occurs in response to environmental stress such as high light...

In this investigation, the influence of the application of pulsed electric fields (PEFs) of different intensities (3-7 kV/cm and 0-300 μs) on the carotenoid extraction from tomato peel and pulp in a mixture of hexane:acetone:ethanol was studied with the aim of increasing extraction yield or reducing the percentage of the less green solvents in the extraction medium. According to the cellular di...

Skin colouration appears to play a pivotal part in facial attractiveness. Skin yellowness contributes to an attractive appearance and is influenced both by dietary carotenoids and by melanin. While both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration enhance apparent health in Caucasian faces by increasing skin yellowness, it remains unclear, firstly, whether both pigments co...

There is growing need for accurate information regarding the bioavailability of carotenoids, both with respect to carotenoids per se and to the vitamin A value of provitamin A carotenoids in foods or supplement preparations. Little quantitative information is currently available, owing primarily to the lack of adequate methods to assess carotenoid bioavailability. Methods applied to xenobiotic ...