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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

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Sexual Crosses with the Mucoromycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus
Published on: June 6, 2025
Splitting of beta-carotene in the sexual interaction of Phycomyces
Silvia Polaino1, M Mar Herrador, Enrique Cerdá-Olmedo
1Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Sevilla, Reina Mercedes, s/n, 41071 Sevilla, Spain.
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
|August 10, 2010
Abstract:
Two new 7-carbon compounds, 1 and 2, have been found in the culture medium of Phycomyces blakesleeanus. A genetic test showed that they derive from beta-carotene. These new molecules represent the missing link that proves that beta-carotene is split into fragments of 18, 15 and 7 carbon fragments, each head of a separate family of apocarotenoids.
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