InterPro domain: IPR014102

This entry represents phytoene desaturase (PDS) from plants and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). It is an essential carotenoid biosynthetic enzyme. It converts phytoene into zeta-carotene via the intermediary of phytofluene by the symmetrical introduction of two double bonds at the C-11 and C-11' positions of phytoene with a concomitant isomerization of two neighbouring double bonds at the C9 and C9' positions from trans to cis [ 1 , 2 ].

This entry does not include plant chloroplast transit peptides and the entry does not contain zeta-carotene desaturase, which is a closely related family in the same pathway.

1. Two Arabidopsis thaliana carotene desaturases, phytoene desaturase and zeta-carotene desaturase, expressed in Escherichia coli, catalyze a poly-cis pathway to yield pro-lycopene. Eur. J. Biochem. 259, 396-403
2. Plant-type phytoene desaturase: Functional evaluation of structural implications. PLoS ONE 12, e0187628