In the yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous the genes idi, crtE, crtYB, crtl and ast are involved in the biosynthesis of astaxanthin from isopentenyl pyrophosphate. The carotenoid production and the kinetics of mRNA expression of structural genes controlling the carotenogenesis in a wild-type ATCC 24230 and in carotenoid overproducer deregulated atxS2 strains were studied. The biosynthesis of carotenoid was induced at the late exponential growth phase in both strains. However, the cellular carotenoid concentration was four times higher in atxS2 than in the wild-type strain in the exponential growth phase, suggesting that carotenogenesis was deregulated in atxS2 at the beginning of growth. In addition, the maximum expression of the carotenogenesis genes at the mRNA level was observed during the induction period of carotenoid biosynthesis in the wild-type strain. The mRNA level of the crtYB, crtl, ast genes and to a lesser extent the idi gene, decayed at the end of the exponential growth phase. The mRNA levels of the crtE gene remained high along the whole growth curve of the yeast. In the atxS2 strain the mRNA levels of crtE gene were about two times higher than the wild-type strain in the early phase of the growth cycle