Patent ID: 7393671

Claim:
An isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having carotenoid ketolase activity, wherein said polypeptide comprises an amino acid sequence which differs from SEQ ID NO: 3 solely by an amino acid substitution selected from the group consisting of: (a) at amino acid position number 96 of SEQ ID NO:3, substitution of histidine with leucine; (b) at amino acid position number 203 of SEQ ID NO:3, substitution of arginine with tryptophan; (c) at amino acid position number 205 of SEQ ID NO:3, substitution of alanine with valine; (d) at amino acid position number 208 of SEQ ID NO:3, substitution of alanine with valine; (e) at amino acid position number 213 of SEQ ID NO:3, substitution of phenylalanine with leucine; (f) at amino acid position number 215 of SEQ ID NO:3, substitution of alanine with threonine; and (g) any combination of (a)-(f).