Abstract
An attempt was made to isolate yeast strains from different sources (flowers, trees exudates, fruits and cheese) which have a fast growth rate and high content of carotenoids. Seventy cultures of pigmented yeast were isolated. Forty six yeast isolates were selected and identified by simplified identification method which showed that all isolates belong to Rhodotorula glutinis. These isolates were screened in two steps. Seventeen promising isolates of Rhodotorula glutinis were selected after the primary screening. Then 6 yeast isolates were chosen and passed through the second screening. The most promising isolate (isolated from pin cushion flower, Scabiosa atropurpurea) was selected according to its total carotenoids content expressed as torulene (μg?g–1 and μg?L–1). This isolate was reclassified using a number of morphological, biochemical, and physiological characteristics which revealed that the yeast isolate agree well with those of Rhodotorula glutinis Var. glutinis. Dry biomass, amount and proportion of individual carotenoids and lipid content of the selected identified yeast were determined.
Highlights
Interest in carotenoids has increased considerably, due in part to the growing evidence of benefits to human health and to the growth of certain areas of agriculture, especially aquaculture and poultry industry [1]
The most promising isolate was selected according to its total carotenoids content expressed as torulene
This isolate was reclassified using a number of morphological, biochemical, and physiological characteristics which revealed that the yeast isolate agree well with those of Rhodotorula glutinis var. glutinis
Summary
Interest in carotenoids has increased considerably, due in part to the growing evidence of benefits to human health and to the growth of certain areas of agriculture, especially aquaculture and poultry industry [1]. Microbial synthesis offers a promising method for production of carotenoids. This explains the increasing interest in production of microbial carotenoids as alternative for synthetic food colourants [1]. Several algae (Dunaliella, Dictyococcus and Haematococcus), bacteria (many species of eubacteria in addition to halobacteria in archaebacteria), some filamentous fungi (belong to lower fungi and Ascomycetes), yeasts (Cryptococcus, Phaffia, Rhodosporidium, Rhodotorula, Sporidiobolus, and Sporobolomyces) are reported to produce carotenoids [1, 6,7,8,9,10]. The production of carotenoids by genus Rhodotorula is affected by species, medium constituents and environmental conditions. The amount of carotenoids produced by this genus can be arranged as low (less than 100 μg·g–1), medium (101 to 500 μg·g–1) and high (more than 500 μg·g–1) as reported by many others [9,15,16,17,18,19,20]
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