Patent ID: 9562220
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: C12N,C12P,C12Y,Y02P

Claim:
1. A method of producing a carotenoid having 50 carbon atoms, comprising: culturing in vitro, in a medium, a single cell organism transformed with a mutant phytoene desaturase gene; and obtaining the carotenoid having 50 carbon atoms from a culture after the culturing; wherein the mutant phytoene desaturase gene has an introduced mutation to encode a mutant phytoene desaturase having an enhanced activity to desaturate a carotenoid backbone compound of 50 carbon atoms; and the mutation causes at least a substitution of an amino acid corresponding to asparagine at position 304 in SEQ ID NO: 1 by proline or serine, and the mutation consists of one or more substitutions at positions 228, 304, 338, 339, and 395 of SEQ ID NO: 1.