Isolation and Characterization of Canthaxanthin Biosynthesis Genes from the Photosynthetic Bacterium Bradyrhizobium sp. Strain ORS278

Abstract
A carotenoid biosynthesis gene cluster involved in canthaxanthin production was isolated from the photosyntheticBradyrhizobium sp. strain ORS278. This cluster includes five genes identified as crtE, crtY,crtI, crtB, and crtW that are organized in at least two operons. The functional assignment of each open reading frame was confirmed by complementation studies.