SUMMARY: Verticillium albo-atrum mutant m5·6 which produces phytoene, β- and γ-carotene, neolycopene A, lycopene and neurosporaxanthin was subjected to the effect of the following inhibitors of carotenoid synthesis: diphenylamine, 2-hydroxydiphenyl, β-ionone, methylheptenone. Certain intermediates in the Porter-Anderson (1962) pathway for carotenoid biosynthesis not previously present were then observed, namely: phytofluene, β-zeacarotene, ζ-carotene, neurosporene. When the mutant was grown in the presence of diphenylamine, washed free from it and then grown again in 1 % glucose in m/15 KH2PO4, the more unsaturated polyenes seem to be formed at the expense of the more saturated ones. There was also evidence that γ-carotene was formed via β-zeacarotene and the sequence of carotenoid formation seems to agree very closely to that suggested by Porter & Anderson (1962).
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