Variation in the level of the carotenoid antioxidant substances beta-carotene and lycopene in the human skin of ten healthy volunteers was measured with resonance Raman spectroscopy in an in vivo experiment over the course of 12 months. Information on the lifestyle of the volunteers concerning dietary supplementation and stress factors was obtained daily by the completion of questionnaires. The...

Egg quality is a phenotype of, and can profoundly influence fitness in, both mother and offspring. However, the physiological mechanisms that underlie this maternal effect are poorly understood. Carotenoids are hypothesized to enhance antioxidant activity and immune function, and are responsible for the pigmentation of egg yolk. The proximate basis and consequences of this maternal investment, ...

Allocation trade-offs of carotenoids between their use in the immune system and production of integumentary colouration have been suggested as a proximate mechanism maintaining honesty of signal traits. We tested how dietary carotenoid supplementation, immune activation and immune suppression affect intensity of coccidian infection in captive greenfinches Carduelis chloris, a passerine with car...

Carotenoids are essential to protection against photooxidative damage in photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms. In a previous study, we reported the disruption of crtD and crtC carotenoid genes in the purple bacterium Rubrivivax gelatinosus, resulting in mutants that synthesized carotenoid intermediates. Here, carotenoid-less mutants have been constructed by disruption of the crtB gen...

The oxidation handicap hypothesis proposes that testosterone mediates the trade-off between the expression of secondary sexual traits and the fight against free radicals. Coloured traits controlled by testosterone can be produced by carotenoid pigments (yellow-orange-red traits), but carotenoids also help to quench free radicals. Recently, it has been shown that testosterone increases the amoun...

The aim of this work was to evaluate the carotenoid content and genetic variability of banana accessions from the Musa germplasm collection held at Embrapa Cassava and Tropical Fruits, Brazil. Forty-two samples were analyzed, including 21 diploids, 19 triploids and two tetraploids. The carotenoid content was analyzed spectrophotometrically and genetic variability was estimated using 653 DArT ma...

Sea urchin gonad (roe) is a highly valued food in Japan and North America. Gonad price is strongly influenced by quality, with appearance, especially colour being a major determinant. Previous attempts to extract a carotenoid profile from the New Zealand sea urchin species Evechinus chloroticus have been challenging due to the large amount of lipid present in the gonad. A carotenoid extraction ...

Ultrafast fluorescence upconversion has been used to probe electronic excitation transfer within the B800B820 light-harvesting antenna of Rhodopseudomonas acidophila strain 7050. Emission from the carotenoid S2 band decays in 54 ( 8 fs, and the bacteriochlorophyll B820 Qy band rises in approximately 110 fs. The B820 Qy rise time is wavelength-dependent. Energy-transfer rates between the caroten...