Kao Corporation

Nara Institute of Science and Technology

Masatoshi Tohata

Keiji Endo

Katsuya Ozaki

Mitsuyoshi Okuda

Katsuhisa Saeki

Fumikazu Takahashi

Kazuhisa Sawada

Takahiro Hioki

Daichi Yamashita

Takahiro Ichihara

Tsuyoshi Sato

Katsutoshi Ara

Yasushi Kageyama

Naotake Ogasawara

Tadahiro Ozawa

Yasunao Wada

Junichi Sekiguchi

Atsuko Hayase

Ryosuke Kadoya

Yumi Nishimura

Kazuo Kobayashi

Ryosuke Tochigi Research Institute Kadoya

Provided is a mutant protease with improved stability under acidic condition. A mutant protease that consists of the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO:2 or an amino acid sequence having an identity of at least 90% thereto, in which the amino acid residue at a position corresponding to position 303 in the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO:2 is substituted with another amino acid residue.

Mutant protease

Provided is a detergent having a high detergency against corneum-derived stains and a method for evaluating the ability of an enzyme to degrade corneum-derived stains. The detergent a M23A subfamily protease as an active ingredient. The method for evaluating the ability of the enzyme to degrade corneum-derived stains comprises obtaining the degrading activities of the test enzyme on a reference peptide and one or more substrate peptides and evaluating the ability of the test enzyme to degrade corneum-derived stains based on the degrading activities of the test enzyme on the reference peptide and the substrate peptide, wherein the reference peptide is GGGGG or GGGG, the one or more substrate peptides are selected from the group consisting of GGGXG, GXGGG, GGXG, and GXGG, and X is any amino acid residue other than glycine.

Detergent for corneum-derived stains, and method for evaluating ability to degrade corneum-derived stains

Provided is a method for efficiently producing an M23A family protease. The method for producing an M23A family protease includes culturing bacteria of the genushaving a polynucleotide encoding a proprotein of the M23A family protease introduced thereinto to produce a mature form of the M23A family protease extracellularly from the bacteria of the genus

Production method for protease of M23A subfamily

Provided is a microorganism having high sophorolipid production capability. Disclosed is a sophorolipid-producing yeast mutant strain, in which a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:2 or an amino acid sequence having at least 90% identity therewith, has been deleted or deactivated.

Sophorolipid highly-productive mutant strain

Provided is a microorganism exhibiting high production capability for sophorolipids. Disclosed is a yeast mutant strain having high sophorolipid productivity, in which a transporter transporting Acyl-CoA to a peroxisome has been deleted or deactivated.

Providing an alkaline protease exhibiting an improved solubility in a liquid detergent. A mutant alkaline protease consisting of the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID No: 2 or an amino acid sequence having 80% or more sequence identity therewith, in which at least one amino acid residue selected from the group consisting of the amino acid residues at predetermined positions of the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID No: 2 or corresponding positions thereto are substituted.

Improving the solubility of an alkaline protease in a liquid detergent by amino acid substitution

The invention is directed to an alkaline protease that has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or of an amino acid sequence having an identity of 90% or more thereto, except that one or more amino acid residues at positions selected from (a) position 6, (b) position 15, (c) position 16, (d) position 65, (e) position 66, (f) position 82, (g) position 83, (h) position 204, (i) position 319, and (j) position 337 of SEQ ID NO: 2, or at positions corresponding thereto, are substituted with certain other amino acid residues. The invention is also directed to detergent compositions and culture medium that contain the protease.

Alkaline protease variants

Novelmutant strains having good productivity of various enzymes are provided through extensive analysis of strains that are derived fromvia gene disruption. Themutant strains according to the present invention have genomic structures prepared by deletion of regions listed in the columns for deficient regions. Each of thesemutant strains exerts significantly improved secretory productivity of a protein when a gene encoding such a secretory target protein is introduced so that it can be expressed, compared with a case in which the same gene is introduced into a wild-type strain.

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A microorganism wherein one or more genes selected from the group of genes participating in sporulation in the middle to late stages of sporulation have been deleted or inactivated; and a process for producing a target product (a protein) by use the microorganism. No spore is formed when this microorganism is employed, thereby enabling production of a target product (a protein) while decreasing energy loss, production of a by-product and specific production speed to decrease unnecessary consumption of a medium. Moreover, the production period can be prolonged, whereby the target product (the protein) can be produced efficiently.

Host microorganisms

The present invention provides a recombinant microorganism obtained by transferring, into a host microorganism which is capable of producing protein or polypeptide with increased productivity and which was identified by the present inventors, a gene encoding a protein or polypeptide, and a method for producing a protein or polypeptide by use of the recombinant microorganism.

Growing community of inventors

Haga-gun, Japan

Masatoshi Tohata