Main description:

This comprehensive, edited book explores carotenoids and their important functional roles in yeast, bacteria and plants and a profound exposition on the structures of carotenoid molecules, focusing in the first of three parts on the biosynthesis of carotenoids. The regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in photosynthesis as well as in plant, fruits, storage roots and algae is central to the second part, and discoveries about the function of carotenoids in human health feature in the third and final part. Many helpful illustrations, explanations, overviews and examples help to bring readers up to date on relevant themes including carotenogenic genes, carotenoids in fruits and metabolic engineering.

The book explores where carotenoids are synthesized in nature, including in carrots and algae. Contributing expert authors examine enzyme functions and plant models, and analyze the structure of carotenoid molecules. The function of carotenoids in photosynthesis and in photosynthetic organs as well as during fruit ripening are then explored. A whole chapter is dedicated to the latest research on apocarotenoids and further chapters cover interesting and novel themes on plastid development and the epigenetic regulation that affects carotenoid synthesis in plants. The metabolic engineering of carotenoids that has been done in fruits, plants, and seeds is another area that readers can explore, along with evidences on the function of carotenoids in human nutrition, as antioxidants, as in the control of lipid metabolism and in the absorption of carotenoids.

This is a highly informative and wide-ranging work which will update researchers in the field, as well as supporting students of plant physiology and biotechnology, as supplementary reading.

Contents:

PART 1 BIOSYNTHESIS OF CAROTENOIDS

1. CAROTENOID DISTRIBUTION IN NATURE; Jennifer Alcaino, Marcelo Baeza, Victor Cifuentes

2. BIOSYNTHESIS OF CAROTENOIDS IN PLANTS: COLOURING THE NATURE; Carolina Rosas and Claudia Stange

3. STRUCTURES AND ANALYSIS OF CAROTENOID MOLECULES; Delia B. Rodriguez-Amaya

PART 2 REGULATION OF CAROTENOIDS BIOSYNTHESIS

4. CAROTENOIDS AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS; Hideki Hashimoto, Chiasa Uragami , and Richard J. Cogdell

5. REGULATION OF CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS IN PHOTOSYNTHETIC ORGANS; Briardo Llorente

6. REGULATION OF CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS DURING FRUIT DEVELOPMENT; Joanna Lado, Lorenzo Zacarias and Maria Jesus Rodrigo

7. CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS IN DAUCUS CAROTA; Kevin Simpson, Ariel Cerda and Claudia Stange

8. CAROTENOIDS IN MICROALGAE; Vitalia Henriquez, Carolina Escobar, Janeth Galarza and Javier Gimpel

9. APOCAROTENOIDS: A NEW CAROTENOID-DERIVED PATHWAY; Juan Camilo Moreno and Claudia Stange

10. PLASTIDS AND CAROTENOID ACCUMULATION; Li Li, Hui Yuan, Yuliu Zeng and Qiang Xu

11. EVIDENCE OF EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS AFFECTING CAROTENOIDS; Jacobo Arango, Jesus Beltran, Jonathan Nunez and Paul Chavarriaga

PART 3. CAROTENOIDS FOR HUMAN HEALTH

12. MANIPULATION OF CAROTENOID CONTENT IN PLANTS TO IMPROVE HUMAN HEALTH; Enriqueta Alos, Maria Jesus Rodrigo and Lorenzo Zacarias

13. CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS IN SEEDS: MODERN BREEDING AND BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO ENHANCE CAROTENOID ACCUMULATION; Federico ML and Schmidt MA

14. CAROTENOIDS AS SOURCE OF ANTIOXIDANTS IN THE DIET; Ana Augusta Odorissi Xavier and Antonio Perez-Galvez

15. CAROTENOIDS IN ADIPOSE TISSUE BIOLOGY AND OBESITY; M. Luisa Bonet, Jose A. Canas, Joan Ribot, Andreu Palou

16. ABSORTION OF CAROTENOIDS AND MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN THEIR HEALTH-RELATED PROPERTIES; Braulio Cervantes-Paz, Claudia I. Victoria-Campos, Jose de Jesus Ornelas-Paz