Carotenoids in Microorganisms and Their Applications

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Naturally occurring carotenoids’ demand is increasing because of their need in the pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, flavor, and animal feed industries. Extraction and synthesis of carotenoids are expensive and technically challenging. To fulfil the ever-increasing demand for the production of carotenoids, microbial production of carotenoids seems to be an attractive alternative to current extraction from natural sources. For carotenoid overproduction in microorganisms, metabolic engineering as well as synthetic biology strategies, have been extensively used to reconstruct and optimize pathways of carotenoid production. Modified and advanced strategies such as the novel and specific enzymes, protein engineering, target gene screening, and regulation tools should be used to improve carotenoid production. The applications of carotenoids, biosynthetic pathways of metabolic engineering of microbial carotenoid production, molecular breeding of carotenoids, and prospects of carotenoids are discussed in the present review.