Carotenoid pigments were demonstrated in arthrospores of the dermatophyte Trichophyton mentagrophytes but were absent from hyphae and microconidia of this fungus. Incubation at higher temperatures (39 degrees C) allowed arthrosporulation to occur, but essentially no carotenoid was detected in such arthrospores. The carotenoid formation in arthrosporulating T. mentagrophytes did not appear to be...

Abstract Carotenoids are the main pigments responsible for coloration and account major antioxidant activity of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) fruit. Significant increments in total carotenoids lycopene levels were observed fruit illuminated by red light relative to white previous studies, but mechanism carotenoid biosynthesis regulated is still unclear. In present study, influence on posthar...

Pantoea stewartii subsp. stewartii, the causal agent of Stewart's wilt of sweet corn, produces a yellow carotenoid pigment. A nonpigmented mutant was selected from a bank of mutants generated by random transposon mutagenesis. The transposon insertion site was mapped to the crtB gene, encoding a putative phytoene synthase, an enzyme involved in the early steps of carotenoid biosynthesis. We demo...

Some nonphotosynthetic microorganisms synthesize carotenes in response to light. Previous experiments demonstrated that the enzymes necessary for the synthesis and metabolism of phytoene were photoinduced in a Mycobacterium sp. We now report that prephytoene pyrophosphate synthetase is also totally photoinduced. Geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthetase (prenyltransferase), which is present in da...