Shiseido Company, Limited

Other

Takeda Chemical Industries, Inc.

Ohji Ifuku

Jiro Kishimoto

Kazuo Nakahama

Naoyuki Kanzaki

Junji Matsui

Hiroshi Okamoto

Masahiro Tajima

Shinichiro Haze

Toshii Iida

Tomohiro Kawamoto

Mitsuo Yanagi

Toshihiko Kaminuma

Hirofumi Aoki

Yuka Fuse

Ichiro Kato

Hiroyuki Kimura

Kenichi Umishio

Antonis S Zervos

Tomomi Okazaki

Shinitiro Haze

Naomi Ota

An endermic liniment which characteristically contains an extract from a plant of the Solanaceae family (Solanaceae), genus Withania (Withania). A whitening endermic liniment with a superior whitening effect can be provided.

External preparations for skin whitening

The specification relates to a gene which is involved in the control of melanin production in human melanocytes. Human homologs of rat rKr2 gene and their fragments, and a method for evaluating melanin production ability in human melanocytes using such fragments are also disclosed. These subject matters are useful mainly in the cosmetic and dermatological fields.

Gene for inhibiting melanin biosynthesis

A microorganism resistant to a threonine analogue, which has a plasmid containing part or whole of a biotin operon; and a process for producing biotin, which comprises culturing a microorganism described above in a medium to produce and accumulate biotin in the medium, and collecting biotin.

Microorganism resistant to threonine analogue and production of biotin

A purified enzyme-I is obtained that participates in C-terminal amidation by acting on a peptide C-terminal glycine adduct to form a peptide C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct. The enzyme has an optimum pH of about 5 to 7, an optimum temperature of 25 to 40.degree. C. and a molecular weight of about 25 kDa or about 36 kDa, and metal ions and ascorbic acid act as a cofactor. A purified enzyme-II is obtained that participates in C-terminal amidation by acting on the peptide C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct to produce a C-terminal amidated compound. The enzyme has an optimum pH of about 5 to 6, an optimum temperature of 15 to 35.degree. C. and a molecular weight of about 40 kDa or about 43 kDa. Enzyme-I does not act on the peptide C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct and enzyme-II does not act on the peptide C-terminal glycine adduct. The enzymes may be purified from a biological material such as horse serum by affinity chromatography using a peptide C-terminal glycine adduct as a ligand. The enzymes may also be obtained from host cells transformed with a plasmid containing a cDNA coding for the enzymes. Assay of activity of the enzymes is carried out by measuring the C-terminal .alpha.-hydroxyglycine adduct or the C-terminal amidated compound that has been isolated such as by high performance liquid chromatography with the use of an acetonitrile-containing buffer.

Method of preparing an enzyme participating in C-terminal amidation

Escherichia coli characterized in that a capability thereof of forming acetate is at most one fifth that of wild type Escherichia coli, and a process for producing a useful substance by cultivating the Escherichia coli to a high density and recovering the substance

Microorganism having low acetate forming capability, and process for

A DNA sequence of high biotin operon-expression system usable for breeding a bacterium having excellent biotin productivity is provided. A DNA sequence of biotin operon characterized in the fact that at least one base pair of either a nucleotide sequence of the regulatory region of the biotin operon of Escherichia coli or a nucleotide sequence in the vicinity of the bioB initiating codon is mutated in comparison with that of the one in its wild type strain is provided. Escherichia coli transformed with a recombinant plasmid carrying such a DNA sequence has high biotin-productivity.

Biotin operon

Purified enzymes participating in C-terminal amidation

A microorganism resistant to a nicotinic acid analogue, which has a plasmid containing part or whole of a biotin operon; and a process for producing biotin, which comprises culturing a microorganism described above in a medium to produce and accumulate biotin in the medium, and collecting biotin.

Microorganism resistant to nicotinic acid analogue and production of

A mutant strain having a glucose consumption rate is at most 1/4 that of wild type strains is provided. The mutant strain belongs to Escherichia, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, or Serratia; has a glucose consumption rate of at most one fourth that of the corresponding wild type strain, and the feedback repression by biotin is removed. Further, a process for producing biotins using this mutant strain is provided.

Process for producing biotin vitamers using novel microorganisms

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Ohji Ifuku