Monday, July 27, 2009
P124

Isolation and molecular characterization of carotenogenic microorganisms with higher antioxidant activity isolated from soils of Rajasthan, India

Abhijeet Singh1, Devendra Jain1, Kartikeya Tiwari1, Mukesh K. Upadhyay2, H. N. Verma2, and Shalini Pareek2. (1) Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, JLN Marg, Jaipur, India, (2) Life Sciences, Jaipur National University, Jagatpura, Jaipur, India

Carotenoids are natural pigments that are essential to microbial, plant and animal life. The findings on the role of carotenoids in the prevention of cancer and chronic diseases have boosted interest in their production for pharmaceutical uses. These pigments are capable of quenching photosensitizers, interacting with singlet oxygen and scavenging peroxy radicals. In recent years, cloning of carotenogenic genes (crt) from various sources has made it possible to synthesize carotenoids in non-carotenogenic microorganisms and plants using Recombinant DNA technology. Recent developments in the molecular biology of carotenoid biosynthesis from microorganisms have provided a number of carotenogenic genes that can be used to synthesize novel compounds by combinatorial biosynthesis.
The present study describes molecular characterization of a new isolates of bacteria for carotenoid production .The carotenogenic bacterial isolates were isolated from the garden soil of seedling academy. The bacterial isolates were observed for the colony characteristics after 48 hours growth in the NA and LB media. The Carotenoids were extracted from the isolates with acetone as a solvent and analyzed immediately after extraction as ultraviolet and visible spectrum is the first diagnostic tool for the identification of the carotenoids. The acetone extract of these bacterial isolates gave a two peak spectrum when scanned between 420-520 nm. Further conformation for ß-carotene was done by TLC. The genomic DNA were isolated from these isolates for 16s rDNA amplification and amplification of partial crtI and crtB genes. Identification of novel carotenoids and evaluation for their antioxidant activity will be done further to confirm novel carotenoids.