Ajinomoto Co., Ltd.

Seiren Kabushiki Kaisha

Roche Vitamins Inc.

Shigeru Nakamori

Kiyoshi Miwa

Takayasu Tsuchida

Konosuke Sano

Hiroshi Takagi

Masaru Wada

Masaaki Ishida

Osamu Kurahashi

Hideyuki Yamada

Harufumi Miwa

Hitoshi Enei

Koichi Ito

Kazuhisa Tsujimoto

Haruo Momose

Masakazu Takahashi

Kenzo Yokozeki

Yasuhiko Yoshihara

Koji Mitsugi

Hiroki Kawashima

Toshimasa Ishii

Hideo Kuronuma

Sakayu Shimizu

Hisao Ito

Hiroshi Matsui

Kazuhiko Matsui

Yoshio Kawahara

Chikahiko Eguchi

Fumihiro Yoshinaga

Katsuaki Sato

Hisao Iwagami

Kenji Soda

Kazuhiko Totsuka

Hajimu Morioka

Mahito Terabe

Takaaki Sato

Takashi Tanaka

Manabu Yokomori

Nobuyoshi Esaki

Yutaka Murakami

Takeshi Niwa

Hirotada Mori

Hirotada c/o Nara Institute Of Science And Technology Mori

Hirotada c/o Nara Institute Of Mori

L-cysteine is produced by culturing anbacterium having L-cysteine producing ability and containing a gene encoding an O-acetylserine sulphydrylase B or MalY regulatory protein that is modified so that cysteine desulfhydrase activity is reduced or eliminated. The bacterium is cultured in a medium to produce and cause accumulation of L-cysteine in the medium, and collecting L-cysteine from the medium.

L-cysteine producing microorganism and a method for producing L-cysteine

A peptide according to the present invention is selected from the group consisting of: (a) a peptide having the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1; (b) a peptide having a modified amino acid sequence of the amino acid sequence described in (a) above, in which one or more amino acid residues are deleted, substituted, inserted or added, and having cell death-preventing activity and/or cell growth-promoting activity; and (c) a peptide which has an amino acid sequence having at least 80% homology with the peptide consisting of the amino acid sequence described in (a) above and has cell death-preventing activity and/or cell growth-promoting activity. The peptide has cell death-preventing activity and/or cell growth-promoting activity, is highly safe, and can be produced without difficulty. The peptide is useful as a culture supplement or as an effective component for a cell culture medium.

Physiologically active peptides

An objective of the present invention is to provide a new protein derived from the silkworm middle silk gland and a DNA encoding said protein. The present invention relates to a protein of the following (a) or (b): (a) a protein comprising the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1; (b) a protein comprising a modified amino acid sequence of the amino acid sequence described in (a) above, in which one or more amino acid residues are deleted, substituted, inserted or added, and having protease activity.

Protein and DNA encoding the same

L-cysteine is produced by culturing a coryneform bacterium in which intracellular serine acetyltransferase activity is increased by transformation with a gene coding for serine acetyltransferase, such modification of an expression control sequence of a gene coding for serine acetyltransferase that expression of the gene in a cell should be enhanced and for forth, preferably in which L-cysteine decomposition system is further suppressed, in a medium to produce and accumulate L-cysteine in culture and collecting the L-cysteine from the culture.

L-cysteine producing bacterium and method for producing L-cysteine

L-Cysteine is produced by culturing a bacterium belonging to the genushaving an L-cysteine producing ability and modified so that cystathionine-&#x3b2;-lyase activity or cystathionine-&#x3b2;-lyase activity and tryptophanase activity should be reduced or eliminated in a medium to produce and accumulate L-cysteine in the medium and collecting the L-cysteine from the medium.

An objective of the present invention is to provide a means to prevent freeze-induced decrease in protein activity. The present invention relates to a method for preventing freeze-induced decrease in protein activity comprising adding a polypeptide comprising the following amino acid sequence (I) to a protein to be frozen. Further, the present invention relates to use of a polypeptide comprising the following amino acid sequence (I) to produce an agent for preventing freeze-induced decrease in protein activity: 

Method of preventing decrease in the activity of protein due to freezing and use of polypeptide in the production of protein activity decrease preventing agent

A levodione reductase having the following physical properties is provided: molecular weight: from about 142,000 to about 155,000&plusmn;10,000 (consisting of four homologous subunits having a molecular weight of 36,000&plusmn;5,000); co-factor: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (AND/NADH); substrate specificity: active on levodione; optimum temperature: about 15&deg; C. to about 20&deg; C. at pH 7.0; optimum pH: 7.5; and activator: K , Cs , Rb , Na and NH . The levodione reductase according to the present invention produces actinol, an important intermediate for the production of zeaxanthin, from levodione. This enzyme may be produced from a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium, preferably the microorganism AKU 611 (FERM BP-6448) or a functional equivalent, subculture, mutant or variant thereof. Also provided is a process for producing the levodione reductase that includes cultivating a microorganism of the genus Corynebacterium in an aqueous medium under aerobic conditions, disrupting the cells of the microorganism and isolating and purifying the levodione reductase from the cell-free extract. A process for producing actinol from levodione is also provided that includes contacting levodione with levodione reductase in the presence of the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide or a cell-free extract of the microorganism, and then isolating the resulting actinol from the reaction mixture.

Levodione reductase

A process for producing L-lysine, which comprises culturing a mutant L-lysine-producing strain belonging to the genus Brevibacterium or the genus Corynebacterium and having selenalysine resistance in a nutrient medium, producing and accumulating L-lysine in the culture broth and collecting L-lysine from the culture broth.

Process for producing L-lysine by fermentation with a bacteria having

A basic L-amino acid and an acidic L-amino acid may be concurrently produced by either culturing a basic L-amino acid-producing bacteria under conditions for producing an acidic L-amino acid or mix-culturing a basic L-amino acid-producing bacteria and an acidic L-amino acid-producing bacteria.

Method for concurrent fermentation of basic amino acid and acidic amino

L-lysine is produced by culturing, in a medium, an L-lysine-producing mutant which belongs to the genus Corynebacterium thermoaminogenes which is capable of growing at 40.degree. C. or higher and which has resistance to S-(2-aminoethyl)-L-cysteine thereby producing and accumulating L-lysine in the culture medium, and collecting L-lysine from the culture medium.

Method for the production of L-lysine employing thermophilic

A method for producing L-tryptophan comprising culturing coryneform glutamic acid-producing bacteria transformed with an expression vector capable of replicating and expressing an operably linked anthranilic acid phosphoribosyl transferase gene isolated from a brevibacterium glutamic acid-producing bacterium, growing the transformants in culture medium allowing for the production of L-tryptophan and recovering the L-tryptophan accumulated in the culture medium.

Method for producing L-tryptophan by fermentation

The present invention relates to a process for producing an aromatic amino acid which comprises culturing a Coryneform bacterium carrying a recombinant DNA constructed by connecting (1) a gene capable of being expressed in a Coryneform bacterial cell and coding for 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulonic acid-7-phosphate synthetase with (2) a plasmid vector capable of propagating in a Coryneform bacterial cell.

Coryneform bacteria carrying recombinant DNA and a process for producing

A recombinant DNA molecule comprising a plasmid vector having operationally inserted therein a gene coding for homoserine kinase is disclosed along with bacteria containing this recombinant DNA molecule and methods of using these bacteria to produce amino acids in large quantities.

Recombinant DNA, bacteria carrying said recombinant DNA and a process

A process for producing L-tryptophan in which a suitable substrate such as a carbohydrate, indole or anthranilic acid is contacted with Coryneform bacteria, where the Coryneform bacteria bear recombinant DNA constructed by connecting a gene coding for tryptophan synthetase with a plasmid vector capable of proliferating in Coryneform bacteria.

Process for producing L-tryptophan

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Shigeru Nakamori