Microalgae Nutraceuticals: The Role of Lutein in Human Health

Spinola, M. Vila; Díaz-Santos, Encarnación

doi:10.1007/978-981-15-0169-2_7

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…Because of high carotenoid content in the human eye, several studies have been conducted to research lutein as a nutraceutical for problems regarding vision and the structure of the eye ( 64 ). Epidemiological studies have reported that lutein in diet supplements could prevent the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD, blindness in old-aged people) and cataracts ( 65 ). The current conventional commercial source of lutein is marigold oleoresin flowers; however, the potential for high lutein production in microalgae can pave the path toward a more efficient commercial source ( 65 ).…”

Section: Algae Fuel and Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Epidemiological studies have reported that lutein in diet supplements could prevent the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD, blindness in old-aged people) and cataracts ( 65 ). The current conventional commercial source of lutein is marigold oleoresin flowers; however, the potential for high lutein production in microalgae can pave the path toward a more efficient commercial source ( 65 ). Within a 7-day period, lutein production and productivity via both heterotrophic and photoautotrophic cultivation, respectively, of Auxenochlorella protothecoides , a green alga, were 34 mg/L and 12 mg/L/day, which resulted in a 10-fold increase in lutein content when compared to marigolds ( 66 ).…”

Section: Algae Fuel and Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Developing algae as a sustainable food source

et al. 2023

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Current agricultural and food production practices are facing extreme stress, posed by climate change and an ever-increasing human population. The pressure to feed nearly 8 billion people while maintaining a minimal impact on the environment has prompted a movement toward new, more sustainable food sources. For thousands of years, both the macro (seaweed and kelp) and micro (unicellular) forms of algae have been cultivated as a food source. Algae have evolved to be highly efficient at resource utilization and have proven to be a viable source of nutritious biomass that could address many of the current food production issues. Particularly for microalgae, studies of their large-scale growth and cultivation come from the biofuel industry; however, this knowledge can be reasonably translated into the production of algae-based food products. The ability of algae to sequester CO2 lends to its sustainability by helping to reduce the carbon footprint of its production. Additionally, algae can be produced on non-arable land using non-potable water (including brackish or seawater), which allows them to complement rather than compete with traditional agriculture. Algae inherently have the desired qualities of a sustainable food source because they produce highly digestible proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates, and are rich in essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Although algae have yet to be fully domesticated as food sources, a variety of cultivation and breeding tools exist that can be built upon to allow for the increased productivity and enhanced nutritional and organoleptic qualities that will be required to bring algae to mainstream utilization. Here we will focus on microalgae and cyanobacteria to highlight the current advancements that will expand the variety of algae-based nutritional sources, as well as outline various challenges between current biomass production and large-scale economic algae production for the food market.

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Section: Algae Fuel and Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Algae Fuel and Foodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing algae as a sustainable food source

et al. 2023

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“…Eukaryotic microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms capable of capturing and transforming light energy and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into high-value products such as lipids, pigments, and proteins, among other useful compounds [ 1 – 3 ]. Of these, the yellow-orange carotenoid lutein is of particularly high value; it is a powerful antioxidant and an essential human dietary nutrient [ 4 ], providing pro-vitamin A and protecting against certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and age-related macular degeneration [ 5 , 6 ]. Several microalgal species naturally accumulate high lutein contents, including two recently described trebouxiophyceae, Parachlorella sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proteomic characterization of a lutein-hyperaccumulating Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant reveals photoprotection-related factors as targets for increasing cellular carotenoid content

McQuillan,

Cutolo,

Evans

et al. 2023

Biotechnol Biofuels

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Background Microalgae are emerging hosts for the sustainable production of lutein, a high-value carotenoid; however, to be commercially competitive with existing systems, their capacity for lutein sequestration must be augmented. Previous attempts to boost microalgal lutein production have focussed on upregulating carotenoid biosynthetic enzymes, in part due to a lack of metabolic engineering targets for expanding lutein storage. Results Here, we isolated a lutein hyper-producing mutant of the model green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and characterized the metabolic mechanisms driving its enhanced lutein accumulation using label-free quantitative proteomics. Norflurazon- and high light-resistant C. reinhardtii mutants were screened to yield four mutant lines that produced significantly more lutein per cell compared to the CC-125 parental strain. Mutant 5 (Mut-5) exhibited a 5.4-fold increase in lutein content per cell, which to our knowledge is the highest fold increase of lutein in C. reinhardtii resulting from mutagenesis or metabolic engineering so far. Comparative proteomics of Mut-5 against its parental strain CC-125 revealed an increased abundance of light-harvesting complex-like proteins involved in photoprotection, among differences in pigment biosynthesis, central carbon metabolism, and translation. Further characterization of Mut-5 under varying light conditions revealed constitutive overexpression of the photoprotective proteins light-harvesting complex stress-related 1 (LHCSR1) and LHCSR3 and PSII subunit S regardless of light intensity, and increased accrual of total chlorophyll and carotenoids as light intensity increased. Although the photosynthetic efficiency of Mut-5 was comparatively lower than CC-125, the amplitude of non-photochemical quenching responses of Mut-5 was 4.5-fold higher than in CC-125 at low irradiance. Conclusions We used C. reinhardtii as a model green alga and identified light-harvesting complex-like proteins (among others) as potential metabolic engineering targets to enhance lutein accumulation in microalgae. These have the added value of imparting resistance to high light, although partially compromising photosynthetic efficiency. Further genetic characterization and engineering of Mut-5 could lead to the discovery of unknown players in photoprotective mechanisms and the development of a potent microalgal lutein production system.

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“…Although more than 1100 naturally occurring carotenoids from nearly 700 different organisms have been reported, astaxanthin, β‐carotene, canthaxanthin, lutein, and lycopene are important commercially as these have antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, antitumor, and antimicrobial properties besides serving as a vitamin A precursor [3–7]. The demand for natural carotenoids has increased in the market due to their applications in food processing, animal feeds, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries [8–10]. Carotenoids' world market value estimated at $1.5 billion in 2017 is expected to grow at annual growth rate of 5.7% to become approximately $2.0 billion by 2022.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of growth and carotenoid production by a green microalga Scenedesmus quadricauda PUMCC 4.1.40. under optimized culture conditions

et al. 2021

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Microalgae are a potential source of a wide range of food and novel value-added products. The versatility of microalgae to produce different kind of pigments is gaining interest as a sustainable source of natural carotenoids. Currently, commercial production of carotenoids from selected microalgae requires special culture conditions which are difficult to maintain. The present study has been undertaken to optimize culture conditions for growth and carotenoid production by a new isolate Scenedesmus quadricauda PUMCC 4.1.40. The results revealed that test organism produced 1.54 mg dry biomass/ml with a content of 40 μg carotenoids/mg dry biomass during stationary phase. The growth and carotenoid production was increased by 2.4-fold under combined optimized culture conditions. The optimized conditions were growth medium, Chu-10; pH 8.5; temperature, 30°C; nitrogen, 20 mM nitrate; phosphate, 0.22 mM; NaCl, 0.42 mM and blue light. Separation and identification of four important carotenoids through high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) followed by purification using flash chromatography and quantification by HPLC revealed 23.8, 19.0, 6.5, and 4.0 μg astaxanthin, β-carotene, lutein, and canthaxanthin /mg dry biomass, respectively. The amount of total carotenoids (98 μg/mg dry biomass) containing 40% valuable astaxanthin and β-carotene produced under optimized conditions was significantly higher than control cultures. This justifies that S. quadricauda is a promising candidate for scale-up production of carotenoid.

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Microalgae Nutraceuticals: The Role of Lutein in Human Health

Cited by 11 publications

References 79 publications

Developing algae as a sustainable food source

Developing algae as a sustainable food source

Proteomic characterization of a lutein-hyperaccumulating Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant reveals photoprotection-related factors as targets for increasing cellular carotenoid content

Evaluation of growth and carotenoid production by a green microalga Scenedesmus quadricauda PUMCC 4.1.40. under optimized culture conditions

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