Metabolomics of astaxanthin biosynthesis and corresponding regulation strategies in Phaffia rhodozyma

Abstract

Astaxanthin is a valuable carotenoid and is used as antioxidant and health care. Phaffia rhodozyma is a potential strain for the biosynthesis of astaxanthin. The unclear metabolic characteristics of P. rhodozyma at different metabolic stages hinder astaxanthin's promotion. This study is conducted to investigate metabolite changes based on quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry metabolomics method. The results showed that the downregulation of purine, pyrimidine, amino acid synthesis, and glycolytic pathways contributed to astaxanthin biosynthesis. Meanwhile, the upregulation of lipid metabolites contributed to astaxanthin accumulation. Therefore, the regulation strategies were proposed based on this. The addition of sodium orthovanadate inhibited the amino acid pathway to increase astaxanthin concentration by 19.2%. And the addition of melatonin promoted lipid metabolism to increase the astaxanthin concentration by 30.3%. It further confirmed that inhibition of amino acid metabolism and promotion of lipid metabolism were beneficial for astaxanthin biosynthesis of P. rhodozyma. It is helpful in understanding metabolic pathways affecting astaxanthin of P. rhodozyma and provides regulatory strategies for metabolism.

The enhancement of astaxanthin production in Phaffia rhodozyma through a synergistic melatonin treatment and zinc finger transcription factor gene overexpression

“…Thus, various plant extracts or phytohormones have been proven to have positive effects on biomass and astaxanthin synthesis as a potential strategy to breakthrough astaxanthin bottleneck in P. rhodozyma (Kim et al, 2007;Stachowiak, 2012;Kothari et al, 2019;Pan et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2022). Although Yang et al analyzed the effects of MT on biomass and astaxanthin content in P. rhodozyma, 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1367084 Frontiers in Microbiology 11 frontiersin.org the mechanism of MT regulating astaxanthin synthesis in this yeast at global level was still unclear (Yang et al, 2023). In this study, a concentration below 1 mg/L MT could increase the biomass, astaxanthin content, and yield in P. rhodozyma by 21.9, 93.9, and 139.1%, respectively, with the same order of magnitude and even lower dose than the previous reports (Ding et al, 2018a;Yang et al, 2023).…”

“…Although Yang et al analyzed the effects of MT on biomass and astaxanthin content in P. rhodozyma, 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1367084 Frontiers in Microbiology 11 frontiersin.org the mechanism of MT regulating astaxanthin synthesis in this yeast at global level was still unclear (Yang et al, 2023). In this study, a concentration below 1 mg/L MT could increase the biomass, astaxanthin content, and yield in P. rhodozyma by 21.9, 93.9, and 139.1%, respectively, with the same order of magnitude and even lower dose than the previous reports (Ding et al, 2018a;Yang et al, 2023). Moreover, unlike no effect or even negative effect of MT on biomass in P. rhodozyma or H. pluvialis, the biomass in P. rhodozyma strain AS2.1557 is induced by MT treatment.…”

Transcriptomics analysis and fed-batch regulation of high astaxanthin-producing Phaffia rhodozyma/Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous obtained through adaptive laboratory evolution

“…The strain JMU-MVP14 of P. rhodozyma (Li et al., 2022 ; Xiao et al., 2015 ; Yang et al., 2023 ) was obtained from the strain bank of the Fujian Key Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Enzyme Engineering. Astaxanthin standard products were purchased from Yuanye Biotechnology Co., Ltd (SHH, CHN).…”

“…However, the astaxanthin yield of naturally isolated P. rhodozyma is low, while the different sources of strains lead to large differences in astaxanthin yield. At present, the astaxanthin content of high-yield strains reported is about 6–10 mg/g (Gassel et al., 2013 ; Jiang et al., 2017 ; Pan et al., 2020 ; Torres-Haro et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2023 ). The methods to improve the astaxanthin content of P. rhodozyma primarily include genetic engineering, random mutagenesis, and optimization of culture conditions (Rodríguez-Sáiz et al., 2010 ).…”