Sony Corporation

Kyowa Hakko Bio Co., Ltd.

Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Shinshu University

Kyowa Hakko Food Specialties Co., Ltd.

Satoshi Mitsuhashi

Kazushi Sato

Naofumi Yanagihara

Kenji Komori

Masato Ikeda

Tetsuo Kaneko

Masami Goseki

Kazuhiro Suzuki

Yuji Ando

Junko Ohnishi

Keiko Ochiai

Takao Terao

Mikiro Hayashi

Tetsuro Ujihara

Masayuki Nishiguchi

Takashi Kojima

Takefumi Nagumo

Satoshi Nakagawa

Tetsuo Nakano

Hiroyuki Yasuda

Yiwen Zhu

Hiroshi Mizoguchi

Yuta Mizuno

Kenji Tanaka

Tomohiko Sakamoto

Seiki Takeno

According to the present invention, there can be provided a process for producing 7-dehydrocholesterol (7DHC), comprising culturing, in a medium, a 7DHC-producingmicroorganism in which sterol 24-C-methyltransferase activity is reduced or lost as compared to a parent strain, allowing 7DHC to be produced and accumulated in the culture, and collecting the 7DHC from the culture; and a process for producing vitamin D3, comprising irradiating, with ultraviolet light, 7-dehydrocholesterol produced by the production process.

Process for producing 7-dehydrocholesterol and vitamin D3

According to the present invention, there can be provided A process for producing 7-dehydrocholesterol (hereinafter, '7DHC'), comprising culturing, in a medium, a 7DHC-producingmicroorganism in which the 7DHC reducing activity is reduced or lost as compared to a parent strain through deletion, substitution, or addition of at least one base in a gene which is present in the chromosomal DNA of the parent strain and encodes a protein having 7DHC reducing activity, and the microorganism produces 7DHC, allowing 7DHC to be produced and accumulated in the culture, and collecting the 7DHC from the culture; and a process for producing vitamin D3, comprising irradiating, with ultraviolet light, the 7DHC produced by the production process.

The present invention provides a process for efficiently producing a useful substance; and a microorganism which belongs to coryneform bacteria and which can be used in the process. The present invention provides a process for producing a useful substance by using a microorganism belonging to coryneform bacteria, the microorganism having an ability to take a sugar, which is taken into a cell via a phosphotransferase system (PTS), into a cell via a system other than the PTS, and having an ability to produce a useful substance.

Process for producing useful substance

The present invention relates to a polypeptide having a modified amino acid sequence of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (hereinafter abbreviated as GND) derived from a microorganism belonging to the genus, said modification being substitution of the amino acid residue(s) at the position(s) corresponding to the 158th and/or the 361st amino acid(s) of the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1, and having GND activity; DNA encoding the polypeptide; a recombinant DNA comprising the DNA; a transformant carrying the recombinant DNA; a microorganism carrying the DNA on the chromosome; and a process for producing a useful substance which comprises culturing the transformant or the microorganism in a medium.

Mutant 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase

The present invention provides a polypeptide which has: (i) an amino acid sequence wherein one or more amino acid residues are substituted in the region at positionstofrom the N terminus of the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1; or (ii) an amino acid sequence wherein one or more amino acid residues are substituted in the region at positionstofrom the N terminus of the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 and one or more amino acid residues are deleted, substituted or added in the region at positionstoorto; and which has N-acetylglutamate kinase activity.

Process for producing L-arginine, L-ornithine or L-citrulline

Mutated 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase

The present invention provides a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence in which at least one amino acid is deleted, substituted or added in an amino acid sequence of isopropylmalate isomerase derived from a microorganism belonging to coryneform bacteria, wherein a coryneform bacterium which produces the polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence as the sole isopropylmalate isomerase exhibits a partial leucine requirement in a minimal medium; a DNA encoding the polypeptide, a recombinant DNA comprising the DNA, a microorganism transformed with the recombinant DNA, and a process for producing an L-amino acid using the microorganism.

Mutant isopropylmalate isomerase

Motion picture data is compression-encoded by a compression encoder with the frame rate changing according to the amount of accumulated data of the buffer, which can adequately change the number of pieces of frame image data to be compression-encoded per unit time, according to the change in the picture of the motion picture. In addition, tracing is done to trace extract image data in the frame image data by using a simple motion vector detected for the frame image data of the motion picture data, a higher layer motion vector detector detects a motion vector of the frame image data by using the simple motion vector in common, and a compression encoder extracts the extract image data based on the results of tracing and compression-encodes it by using the motion vector.

Motion picture encoding apparatus

An MPEG downdecoder is to be provided which eliminates dephasing of pixels of moving picture data without losing properties inherent in a picture obtained on interlaced scanning. If an interlaced picture is inputted, and the DCT mode is the field mode, an interlaced picture accommodating picture decoding unit executes 4&times;4 decimating IDCT. If the DCT mode is the frame mode, the entire coefficients of the DCT block are IDCTed for separation into two pixel blocks associated with interlaced scanning. The separated two pixel blocks are DCTed. The coefficients of the low-frequency components are IDCTed and the two pixel blocks are synthesized together. A progressive picture accommodating picture decoding unit is fed with a progressive picture. The coefficients of the low-frequency components of the DCT block are inverse orthogonal transformed.

Picture decoding method and apparatus

An MPEG downdecoder is to be provided which eliminates dephasing of pixels of moving picture data without losing properties inherent in a picture obtained on interlaced scanning. In the case of a field DCT mode, 4&times;4 decimating IDCT is executed for phase correction for a &frac14; pixel for pixels in the vertical direction of a top field and for phase correction for &frac34; pixel for pixels in the vertical direction of a bottom field. In the case of a frame DCT mode, the totality of coefficients of a DCT block are IDCTed and separated into two pixel blocks associated with interlaced scanning. The low-frequency components of these two pixel blocks are IDCTed to synthesize the two pixel blocks. The pixels in the vertical direction of the top field are phase-corrected by a &frac14; pixel, while those in the vertical direction of the bottom field are phase-corrected by a &frac34; pixel.

An MPEG downdecoder is to be provided which eliminates pixel dephasing with the field DCT mode and the frame DCT mode without detracting from picture characteristics proper to interlaced pictures. To this end, a decimating IDCT unit effectuates 4&times;4 decimating IDCT if the DCT mode is the field mode. If the DCT mode is a frame mode, a decimating IDCT unit effectuates IDCT on the totality of coefficients of a DCT block to separate the coefficients into two pixel blocks associated with interlaced scanning. The decimating IDCT unit executes DCT on the separated two pixel blocks. The low-frequency components of the two pixel blocks are processed with IDCT and the two pixel blocks are synthesized.

An MPEG downdecoder is to be provided which eliminates dephasing of pixels during motion compensation to prevent deterioration of the picture quality ascribable to motion compensation. MPEG data of a high resolution picture are processed by decimating IDCT devices with 4&times;4 decimating IDCT to decode data of standard resolution picture data. In the case of the field motion prediction mode, a motion compensation device interpolates respective pixels of a macro-block of reference picture data stored in a frame memory to generate a macro-block constituted by pixels of &frac14; pixel precision. In the case of the frame motion prediction mode, a motion compensation device interpolates respective pixels of macro-block of reference picture data stored in the frame memory to generate a macro-block constituted by pixels of &frac14; pixel precision.

An MPEG downdecoder which eliminates picture quality deterioration ascribable to motion compensation. A decimating inverse discrete cosine transform unit performs 4&times;4 decimating IDCT if the DCT mode is the field mode. If the DCT mode is the frame mode, a decimating IDCT unit for frame mode applies IDCT to the totality of the coefficients of the DCT block and separates the DCT block into two pixel blocks in order to cope with the interlaced scanning. Each of the separated pixel blocks is processed with DCT. To reference picture data, pixels are interpolated using orthogonal transform by motion compensation units to generate virtual upper-order picture data of high resolution, which is processed with motion compensation. The motion-compensated virtual upper-order picture data is orthogonal transformed to decimate pixels to generate reference picture data used for addition.

A method for picture compression which may be used with advantage for compressing a picture. The picture compression apparatus includes a compression unit for compressing input picture data, a basic compression ratio setting unit for setting the basic compression ratio in compressing the input picture data by the compression unit, a designating unit for designating an optional area in the input picture, a designated area importance setting unit for setting the importance in compressing the input picture data corresponding to the area designated by the designation unit and a compression ratio modifying unit for modifying the basic compression ratio based upon the importance for the designated area as set by the designated area importance setting unit. An optional area in an input picture is designated, and importance attached to the designated area is set, so that the picture in the designated area can be compressed with the desired importance. The post-compression bit rate can be accommodated within the target bit rate by modifying the basic compression ratio based upon the importance of the designated area. A corresponding apparatus for compressing an input picture data is also disclosed.

Method and apparatus for selective control of degree of picture compression

An image transmission device for transmitting the encoded data obtained by encoding the data of an image through a transmission line of a predetermined transmission rate comprises a transmission unit for transmitting the encoded data and a controller for controlling the transmission unit to transmit the data which instructs to generate a copy picture copying a picture corresponding to the encoded data transmitted previously based on the difference between the bit rate of the encoded data and the predetermined transmission rate, in place of the encoded data to be transmitted originally.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Satoshi Mitsuhashi