In many birds, carotenoids have dual functions as irreversible plumage pigments and as physiologically essential vitamins and antioxidants. They must be obtained through the diet and may therefore be a limiting resource, a constraint that is likely to vary with factors such as sex, habitat, and time of year. In the present study, we investigated signs of carotenoid limitation in great tits, Par...

Knowledge of the genetic basis of sexual ornaments is essential to understand their evolution through sexual selection. Although carotenoid-based ornaments have been instrumental in the study of sexual selection, given the inability of animals to synthesize carotenoids de novo, they are generally assumed to be influenced solely by environmental variation. However, very few studies have directly...

Lycium chinense is a shrub that has health benefits and is used as a source of medicines in Asia. In this study, a full-length cDNA clone encoding β-ring carotene hydroxylase (LcCHXB) and partial-length cDNA clones encoding phytoene synthase (LcPSY), phytoene desaturase (LcPDS), ξ-carotene desaturase (LcZDS), lycopene β-cyclase (LcLCYB), lycopene ε-cyclase (LcLCYE), ε-ring carotene hydroxylase ...

Time-course variation of lipid and carotenoid production under high light (300 μE/m²s) and nitrogen starvation conditions was determined in a Dunaliella tertiolecta strain. Nanoelectrospray (nanoESI) chip based direct infusion was used for lipid analysis and ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled with a photodiode array (PDA) or atmospheric chemical ionization mass spectrometry ...

We determined whether estimation of intake of specific carotenoids with a standard food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) could be improved by collection of additional data on the intake of carotenoid-rich food items. The foods included on an addendum to the standard FFQ were potentially important dietary contributors of alpha- and beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, or lycopene....

Consumption of dietary carotenoids or carotenoid supplements can alter the color (yellowness) of human skin through increased carotenoid deposition in the skin. As fruit and vegetables are the main dietary sources of carotenoids, skin yellowness may be a function of regular fruit and vegetable consumption. However, most previous studies have used tablets or capsules to supplement carotenoid int...

Some of the most spectacular exaggerated sexual ornaments are carotenoid dependent. It has been suggested that such ornaments have evolved because carotenoid pigments are limiting for both signal expression and in their role as antioxidants and immunostimulants. An implicit assumption of this hypothesis is that males which can afford to produce more elaborate carotenoid-dependent displays are s...

OBJECTIVE The hypothesis of carotenoid having a preventive role in diabetes is suggested by their antioxidant properties. In this report, we investigated the relationship between baseline total plasma carotenoid levels and 9-year onset of dysglycemia (impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes) in a healthy elderly population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The Epidemiology of Vascular Ageing S...

A highly purified cytochrome b(6)f complex from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 selectively binds one chlorophyll a and one carotenoid in analogy to the recent published structure from two other b(6)f complexes. The unknown function of these pigments was elucidated by spectroscopy and site-directed mutagenesis. Low-temperature redox difference spectroscopy showed red shifts in the...