Kirin Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha

Norihiko Misawa

Hiroaki Kasai

Yasuhiro Nishida

Seon-Kang Choi

Kyoko Adachi

Yoshikazu Shizuri

Sadao Komemushi

To provide a microorganism or a plant transformed with a &#x3b2;-ionone ring-4-ketolase gene and/or &#x3b2;-ionone ring-3-hydroxylase gene derived fromsp. strain SD-212. The &#x3b2;-ionone ring-4-ketolase gene and &#x3b2;-ionone ring-3-hydroxylase gene produced bysp. strain SD-212 each have a high activity compared with those of known enzymes, and therefore microorganisms transformed with the genes encoding these enzymes can efficiently produce astaxanthin.

Method of producing astaxanthin or metabolic product thereof by using carotenoid ketolase and carotenoid hydroxylase genes

The present invention provides asp. strain SD212-derived peptide having &#x3b2;-ionone ring-2-hydroxylase activity and a gene encoding the same, to thereby make it possible to produce rare carotenoids in which a hydroxyl group is introduced at the position 2(2') carbon in their &#x3b2;-ionone ring in large quantities. The present invention also provides a novel gene encoding an enzyme which introduces a hydroxyl group at the position 3(3&#x2032;) carbon in the &#x3b2;-ionone ring of carotenoids, and a novel gene encoding a geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase.

Carotenoid hydroxylase gene, method for preparing hydroxylated carotenoid, and novel geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase

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Kamaishi, Japan

Norihiko Misawa