Biosynthetic pathway of psi. psi. carotene from Streptomyces sp. VITGV38 (MCC 4869)

Pattapulavar Veilumuthu Manoj Sekaran Rajasekaran Chandrasekaran Shweta Panchal Godwin Christopher ^*

• School of Biosciences and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

Endophytic Streptomyces play a crucial role in plant-microbe interactions, often exhibiting beneficial biological activities. This study aimed to characterize carotene synthesizing pathway for a newly discovered Streptomyces sp. VITGV38, isolated from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). its genomic analysis and secondary metabolite production potential was screened. The strain (MCC4869), was cultured in starch casein broth, and its metabolites were analyzed using GC-MS. Notably, pigmented compounds, including psi, psi-carotene, were identified at a retention time of 25.094, constituting 1.26% of the crude extract. Whole-genome sequencing by Illumina platform revealed an 8.27 Mb genome encoding 26 distinct secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters, analyzed using antiSMASH. These, scaffold 26.3 was identified as a terpene biosynthetic cluster, accounting for 62% of the total secondary metabolite content and associated with carotenoid and β-carotene production. These findings highlight the biotechnological potential of Streptomyces sp. VITGV38 for sustainable microbial production of carotenoids, offering an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic pigments.