The potential use of date syrup, for the production of carotenoids by Rhodotorula glutinisin batch fermentation process, was investigated during 7 days. The results revealed that carbon (glucose or date syrup) and nitrogen sources [yeast extract, (NH4)2SO4 and NH4NO3] had a significant influence on biomass and carotenoid production. Maximum yield of total carotenoid production (7.94 mg/L) with ...

Pathogenic or parasitic infections pose numerous physiological challenges to organisms. Carotenoid pigments have often been used as biomarkers of disease state and impact because they integrate multiple aspects of an individual's condition and nutritional and health state. Some diseases are known to influence carotenoid uptake from food (e.g. coccidiosis) and carotenoid use (e.g. as antioxidant...

BACKGROUND For many bird species, vision is the primary sensory modality used to locate and assess food items. The health and spectral sensitivities of the avian visual system are influenced by diet-derived carotenoid pigments that accumulate in the retina. Among wild House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), we have found that retinal carotenoid accumulation varies significantly among individuals ...

Animals must allocate finite resources amongst competing demands. A suite of such trade-offs is thought to occur in the deployment of carotenoids, being widely responsible for sexual coloration and also important in antioxidant and immune defences. Experimental manipulation of dietary carotenoid availability is a useful approach for elucidating the mechanistic bases of carotenoid allocation tra...

Many male birds use carotenoid pigments to acquire brilliant colors that advertise their health and condition to prospective mates. The direct means by which the most colorful males achieve superior health has been debated, however. One hypothesis, based on studies of carotenoids as antioxidants in humans and other animals, is that carotenoids directly boost the immune system of colorful birds....

Rarely are the evolutionary origins of mate preferences known, but, recently, the preference of female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) for males with carotenoid-based sexual coloration has been linked to a sensory bias that may have originally evolved for detecting carotenoid-rich fruits. If carotenoids enhance the immune systems of these fishes, as has been suggested for other species, this coul...

The red coloration of rainbow trout muscle is an important quality criterion. Duplicate groups of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss; initial weight of 200±10g) were fed diets either supplemented 0 (control), 0.5, 2, or 4%, of the Caspian Sea gammarus (Pontogammarus maeoticus) respectively as a prospective alternative carotenoid source. The feeding trial lasted for 39 days. No significan...

A survey of carotenoid—protein complexes is presented. Distinction is made between astaxanthin—proteins in which the absorption band of the carotenoid is unaltered in shape, and carotenoid—lipoglycoprotein complexes. The proposal by Buchwald and Jencks79 that the carotenoid is twisted about the double bonds of the polyene chain, is discussed and sustained for astaxanthin—proteins. A mode of bin...

As an aromatic and colorful plant of substantive taste, saffron (Crocus sativus L.) owes such properties of matter to growing class of the secondary metabolites derived from the carotenoids, apocarotenoids. Regarding the critical role of microRNAs in secondary metabolic synthesis and the limited number of identified miRNAs in C. sativus, on the other hand, one may see the point how the characte...