Screening and Identification of a Strain Producing Lycopene

Abstract

Lycopene is gaining more and more attention because of its physiological activities, and it is widely used in food additives, cosmetics and other industries. For lycopene production by microorganism, lycopene-producing strains were screened from oil-immersed soil. A strain of S-1 was successfully screened by analysing the cells extract using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). On the basis of morphological characteristics and sequence analysis of 26S rDNA of strain S-1, the strain S-1 was identified as Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. The lycopene production by Rhodotorula mucilaginosa in fermentation broth reached 7.4 mg/L by 108 h.