Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

Hitoki Miyake

Tomoyuki Ando

Hironori Komatsu

Toshihiro Oikawa

Hideki Umetani

Tadashi Araki

Takeshi Nakamura

Atsushi Sakuma

Hiroki Ishibashi

Toshifumi Yamaki

Yasushi Fukuiri

Kazuhiko Togashi

Daisuke Mochizuki

Hitoshi Takahashi

Nobuyuki Fukazawa

Hideki Sawai

Tsuyoshi Inoue

Takashi Mimitsuka

Mitsufumi Wada

Katsutoshi Tsuchiya

Takashi Morishige

Nobuhiro Fukuhara

Kiyoshi Ito

Tamotsu Asano

Junko Tokuda

Setsuo Yoshino

Masami Osabe

Mitsuo Koito

Yosuke Higashi

Reiko Abe

Ichirou Ikeda

Junya Fujiwara

Miyuki Kawashima

Hirokazu Awano

Kyoko Maruyama

Takahiro Yamauchi

Mitsufumi Wade

A method for producing D-lactic acid in high yield, and to provide a method for producing D-lactic acid with high selectivity, in which optical purity is high and a by-product organic acid is small. In one aspect, a microorganism, wherein activity of pyruvate formate-lyase (pfl) is inactivated or decreased, and further activity of-derived NADH-dependent D-lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA) is enhanced, is cultured to efficiently produce D-lactic acid. With regard to a method for enhancing ldhA activity, by linking, on a genome, a gene encoding ldhA with a promoter of a gene which controls expression of a protein involved in a glycolytic pathway, a nucleic acid biosynthesis pathway or an amino acid biosynthesis pathway, suitable results are obtained compared to the method for enhancing expression of the gene using an expression vector. A microorganism in which a dld gene is substantially inactivated or decreased is cultured to produce high quality D-lactic acid with reduced concentration of pyruvic acid.

Biocatalyst for production of D-lactic acid

A novel gluconate dehydratase derived fromand a gene encoding the gluconate dehydratase are provided. By reacting the gluconate dehydratase or a transformed cell containing the gene with an aldonic acid, the corresponding 2-keto-3-deoxyaldonic acid can be efficiently produced.

Gluconate dehydratase

A desired isomer is selectively prepared by phosphorolyzing and isomerizing an anomer mixture of a 1-phosphorylated saccharide derivative while crystallizing one of the isomers to displace the equilibrium. Furthermore, using the action of a nucleoside phosphorylase, a nucleoside is prepared from the 1-phosphorylated saccharide derivative obtained and a base with improved stereoselectivity and a higher yield. This process is an anomer-selective process for preparing a 1-phosphorylated saccharide derivative and a nucleoside.

Process for selectively producing 1-phosphorylated sugar derivative anomer and process for producing nucleoside

A purified N-t-butoxycarbonylphenylalanine ester preparation having an enhanced optical activity can be obtained by bringing an N-t-butoxycarbonylphenylalanine ester preparation containing an optically active compound into contact with an aliphatic hydrocarbon, extracting the optically active compound with the aliphatic hydrocarbon, and recovering the optically active compound from the resulting extract.

Process for preparing N-t-butoxycarbonylphenylalanine ester

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Mobara, Japan

Hitoki Miyake