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bower · April 1, 2014

From the chart in the presentation you linked and the following I would conclude that delta carotene is on the pathway to lutein synthesis and never leading to beta carotene or lycopene. The Del gene might contribute to lutein in tomatoes, but at the expense of beta carotene or lycopene, according to the abstract for this paper; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24141052
Elevation of lutein content in tomato: a biochemical tug-of-war between lycopene cyclases.

The Del variety used in that research is referred to as "HighDelta".

Foundation research on Del tomato crosses by Tomes:
http://www.genetics.org/content/62/4/769.full.pdf

I haven't seen any research on biological effects of delta carotene itself, but there's a lot of research on the health benefits of lutein and bioavailability is discussed in this abstract for example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10426704

Bioavailability of lutein from vegetables is 5 times higher than that of beta-carotene.

It's very interesting, that there are Beta 'promoters' found in different type examples. I found two articles by Francis and co-authors who are continuing to explore the additional color modifiers found in wild species, besides the classic known tomato genes/alleles.

http://journal.ashspublications.org/....full.pdf+html
Sacks and Francis (2001)

http://journal.ashspublications.org/....full.pdf+html
Kabelka Yang and Francis (2004)

April 1, 2014	#22
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	From the chart in the presentation you linked and the following I would conclude that delta carotene is on the pathway to lutein synthesis and never leading to beta carotene or lycopene. The Del gene might contribute to lutein in tomatoes, but at the expense of beta carotene or lycopene, according to the abstract for this paper; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24141052 Elevation of lutein content in tomato: a biochemical tug-of-war between lycopene cyclases. The Del variety used in that research is referred to as "HighDelta". Foundation research on Del tomato crosses by Tomes: http://www.genetics.org/content/62/4/769.full.pdf I haven't seen any research on biological effects of delta carotene itself, but there's a lot of research on the health benefits of lutein and bioavailability is discussed in this abstract for example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10426704 Bioavailability of lutein from vegetables is 5 times higher than that of beta-carotene. It's very interesting, that there are Beta 'promoters' found in different type examples. I found two articles by Francis and co-authors who are continuing to explore the additional color modifiers found in wild species, besides the classic known tomato genes/alleles. http://journal.ashspublications.org/....full.pdf+html Sacks and Francis (2001) http://journal.ashspublications.org/....full.pdf+html Kabelka Yang and Francis (2004)