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Science 27 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5628, pp. 2089 - 2091
DOI: 10.1126/science.1085162
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Reports

Biosynthesis of the Food and Cosmetic Plant Pigment Bixin (Annatto)

Florence Bouvier,1 Odette Dogbo,2 Bilal Camara1*

Bixin, also known as annatto, is a seed-specific pigment widely used in foods and cosmetics since pre-Columbian times. We show that three genes from Bixa orellana, native to tropical America, govern bixin biosynthesis. These genes code for lycopene cleavage dioxygenase, bixin aldehyde dehydrogenase, and norbixin carboxyl methyltransferase, which catalyze the sequential conversion of lycopene into bixin. Introduction of these three genes in Escherichia coli engineered to produce lycopene induced bixin synthesis, thus expanding the supply of this economically important plant product.

1 Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, CNRS, Université Louis Pasteur, 67084 Strasbourg, Cedex, France.
2 Unités de Formation et de Recherche Sciences de la Nature, (UFR SN), Université d'Abobo-Adjamé 02 Boite Postale 801, Abidjan 02, Côte d'Ivoire.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Bilal.camara{at}ibmp-ulp.u-strasbg.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)