Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiromi Kambe

Masakazu Ito

Katsunori Kohda

Takashi Shimamura

Masayoshi Muramatsu

Shusei Obata

Seiichi Taguchi

Kenji Tajima

Yasuharu Satoh

Ken'ichiro Matsumoto

Katsuhiro Ohno

Miwa Yamada

Aliphatic polyester productivity is improved for production of aliphatic polyester using a recombinant microorganism. A recombinant microorganism prepared by introducing a gene encoding a protein having activity of converting lactic acid to lactic-acid CoA and a gene encoding a protein having activity of synthesizing polyhydroxyalkanoate using hydroxyacyl CoA as a substrate into a host microorganism is cultured and then aliphatic polyester is recovered from the medium.

Recombinant microorganism and method for producing aliphatic polyester using the same

A substitution mutation that improves polymerization activity of a polyhydroxyalkanoic acid synthase is identified. At least 1 amino acid residue selected from the group consisting of a histidine residue at position 17, a proline residue at position 71, a valine residue at position 131, a methionine residue at position 205, a leucine residue at position 230, and a proline residue at position 239 of a polyhydroxyalkanoic acid synthase derived fromis subjected to substitution mutation with another amino acid.

Mutant polyhydroxyalkanoic acid synthase gene and method for producing aliphatic polyester using the same

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for efficiently producing a polylactate via microbial fermentation with the use of a sugar as a starting material. The method is a method for producing a polylactate, which comprises the steps of:

Method for production of polylactate using recombinant microorganism

The object of the present invention is to provide a method for efficiently producing a polyester copolymer consisting of 3-hydroxybutyrate and lactate via microbial fermentation with the use of a sugar as a starting material. The method may comprise culturing a recombinant microorganism expressing: a protein capable of catalyzing the transfer of CoA to propionic acid and/or lactate; a protein capable of catalyzing the formation of acetoacetyl-CoA from two acetyl-CoA molecules; a protein capable of catalyzing acetoacetyl-CoA reduction; and a protein capable of catalyzing polyhydroxyalkanoate synthesis. According to the production method, a polyester copolymer consisting of 3-hydroxybutyrate and lactate can be efficiently produced using an inexpensive carbon source as a starting material, and thus the production cost of a biodegradable plastic can be reduced.

Method for production of polyester copolymer using recombinant microorganism

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Seto, Japan

Hiromi Kambe