The major carotenoid species isolated from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27 have been identified as zeaxanthin-glucoside-fatty acid esters (thermozeaxanthins and thermobiszeaxanthins). Most of the genes of the proposed T. thermophilus carotenoid pathway could be found in the genome, but there is less clarity about the genes which encode the enzymes performing the final carotenoid glycosylation and acylation steps. To get a further insight into the biosynthesis of thermo(bis)zeaxanthins in T. thermophilus, we deleted the megaplasmid open reading frame TT{_}P0062 (termed cruC) by both exchanging it with a kanamycin resistance cassette (DeltacruC:kat) and by generating a markerless gene deletion strain (DeltacruC). A fast and efficient electrospray ionization-ion mobility-time-of-flight mass spectrometry method via direct infusion was developed to compare the carotenoid profiles of wild type and mutant T. thermophilus cell culture extracts. These comparisons revealed significant alterations in the carotenoid composition of the DeltacruC mutant, which was found to accumulate zeaxanthin. This is the first experimental evidence that the ORF encodes the glycosyltransferase enzyme necessary for the glycosylation of zeaxanthin in the final modification steps of the thermozeaxanthin biosynthesis in T. thermophilus HB27. Also, the proposed method for direct determination of carotenoid amounts and species in crude acetone extracts represents an improvement over existing methods in terms of speed and sensitivity and may be applicable in high-throughput analyses of other terpenoids as well as other important bacterial metabolites like fatty acids and their derivatives.     «

The major carotenoid species isolated from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27 have been identified as zeaxanthin-glucoside-fatty acid esters (thermozeaxanthins and thermobiszeaxanthins). Most of the genes of the proposed T. thermophilus carotenoid pathway could be found in the genome, but there is less clarity about the genes which encode the enzymes performing the final carotenoid glycosylation and acylation steps. To get a further insight into the biosynthesis of thermo(bis)z...     »