{"doi":"10.1038/s42003-023-05446-1","title":"Bioavailability and provitamin A activity of neurosporaxanthin in mice","abstract":"Abstract Various species of ascomycete fungi synthesize the carboxylic carotenoid neurosporaxanthin. The unique chemical structure of this xanthophyll reveals that: (1) Its carboxylic end and shorter length increase the polarity of neurosporaxanthin in comparison to other carotenoids, and (2) it contains an unsubstituted β-ionone ring, conferring the potential to form vitamin A. Previously, neurosporaxanthin production was optimized in Fusarium fujikuroi , which allowed us to characterize its antioxidant properties in in vitro assays. In this study, we assessed the bioavailability of neurosporaxanthin compared to other provitamin A carotenoids in mice and examined whether it can be cleaved by the two carotenoid-cleaving enzymes: β-carotene-oxygenase 1 (BCO1) and 2 (BCO2). Using Bco1 −/− Bco2 − /− mice, we report that neurosporaxanthin displays greater bioavailability than β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin, as evidenced by higher accumulation and decreased fecal elimination. Enzymatic assays with purified BCO1 and BCO2, together with feeding studies in wild-type, Bco1 −/− , Bco2 − /− , and Bco1 −/− Bco2 −/− mice, revealed that neurosporaxanthin is a substrate for either carotenoid-cleaving enzyme. Wild-type mice fed neurosporaxanthin displayed comparable amounts of vitamin A to those fed β-carotene. Together, our study unveils neurosporaxanthin as a highly bioavailable fungal carotenoid with provitamin A activity, highlighting its potential as a novel food additive.","journal":"Communications Biology","year":2023,"id":363031,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9451,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1117034,"name":"Dámaso Hornero‐Méndez","orcid":"0000-0002-1781-5703","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":417587,"name":"Sepalika Bandara","orcid":"0000-0003-1029-1457","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1117567,"name":"Obdulia Parra-Rivero","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1117035,"name":"M. Carmen Limón","orcid":"0000-0002-9982-6480","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":315246,"name":"Johannes von Lintig","orcid":"0000-0002-2079-2143","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1117036,"name":"Javier Ávalos","orcid":"0000-0001-5484-2893","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":244024,"name":"Jaume Amengual","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":314677,"name":"Anthony P. Miller","orcid":"0000-0001-6067-9228","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":64,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:14:28.054440Z","pmid":"37864015","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}