Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Showa Denko K.k.

Hokkaido University

Ken'ichiro Matsumoto

Seiichi Taguchi

Shusei Obata

Hirobumi Aoki

Kenji Tajima

Katsunori Kohda

Yasuharu Satoh

Hiromi Kambe

Takashi Shimamura

Katsuhiro Ohno

Miwa Yamada

The present invention relates to a method of producing organic acids, comprising biochemical synthesis of organic acid-CoA using acetyl-CoA as a substrate and conducting CoA elimination reaction of the organic acid-CoA using CoA transferase in the presence of acetic acid, in which organic acid is obtained by culturing transformed microorganisms which have an enzyme gene cluster for the synthesis of organic acid-CoA using acetyl-CoA as a substrate and a CoA transferase gene.

Production method for organic acid using CoA-transferase

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

Growing community of inventors

Sapporo, Japan

Ken'ichiro Matsumoto