Other

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Jidoshokki

Nagoya University

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Hirosaki University

Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute

Eiji Masai

Yoshihiro Katayama

Masao Fukuda

Yasushi Hotta

Seiji Nishikawa

Toshihisa Shimo

Masaya Nakamura

Kiyotaka Shigehara

Kohei Mase

Seiji Ohara

Naoki Ohara

Yuichiro Otsuka

Tomonori Sonoki

Naofumi Kamimura

The objective of the present invention is to provide a microorganism that makes it possible to produce muconic acid from a lignin-derived aromatic compound with sufficient economic efficiency and without depending on the type of lignin, and a method of producing muconic acid using the microorganism. The objective can be achieved by a transformed microorganism wherein the host microorganism is a microorganism of the genusthat has pcaH gene, pcaG gene, catA gene, and catB gene on its chromosome, and that can assimilate an aromatic compound derived from syringyl lignin; and wherein the transformed microorganism lacks at least one gene selected from the group consisting of pcaH gene and pcaG gene on its chromosome, lacks catB gene on its chromosome, and expresses aroY gene inserted; and a method of producing muconic acid using the transformed microorganism and the like.

Muconic acid-producing transformed microorganism and use thereof

There is provided a process for industrial production of simple 3-carboxy-cis,cis-muconic acid and/or 3-carboxymuconolactone from low molecular mixtures derived from plant components such as vanillin, vanillic acid and protocatechuic acid, via a multistage enzyme reaction. A recombinant plasmid containing a vanillate demethylase gene (vanAB genes), benzaldehyde dehydrogenase gene (ligV gene) and protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase gene (pcaHG genes); transformants incorporating the plasmid; and a process for production of 3-carboxy-cis,cis-muconic acid and/or 3-carboxymuconolactone characterized by culturing the transformants in the presence of vanillin, vanillic acid, protocatechuic acid or a mixture of two or more thereof.

Plasmid, transformants and process for production of 3-  carboxymuconolactone

Polypeptides having &agr;-hydroxy-&ggr;-carboxymuconic acid-&egr;-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity

Gene encoding an alpha-hydroxy-gamma-carboxymuconic acid-epsilon-semialdehyde dehydrogenase

Growing community of inventors

Nagaoka, Japan

Eiji Masai