Astaxanthin is a natural carotenoid pigment with tremendous antioxidant activity and great commercial value. Microbial production of astaxanthin via metabolic engineering has become a promising alternative. Although great efforts have been conducted by tuning the heterologous modules and precursor pools， the astaxanthin yields in these non-carotenogenic microorganisms were still unsatisfactory for commercialization， indicating that in addition to targeted tailoring limited targets guided by rationally metabolic design， combining more globe disturbances in astaxanthin biosynthesis system and uncovering new molecular mechanisms seem to be much more crucial for further development. Since combined metabolic engineering with mutagenesis by screening is a powerful tool to achieve more global variations and even uncover more molecular targets， this study would apply a comprehensive approach integrating heterologous module engineering and mutagenesis by atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) to promote astaxanthin production in .