Carotenoid biosynthesis in microorganisms and plants

Abstract

The chemical structures of α- and β-carotene were elucidated about 60 years ago. Then in the middle of this century, 14C-labelling experiments revealed the origin of the carbon atoms of the C40 skeleton. This knowledge led consequently to the establishment of the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids by 1970 (see [1] for a compilation of various aspects of carotenoids). The following two decades were the period in which cell-free systems were developed for investigations on the reaction sequence and for enzymic studies. An excellent historical survey about this period was given by Goodwin [2]. The most comprehensive and most detailed review article was written by Spurgeon and Porter [3] covering all relevant aspects of carotenoid biosynthesis. The information presented there was up-dated in the following years in several subsequent articles (e.g. [4, 5]).