Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

Mitsui Petrochemical Industries, Ltd.

Yosuke Higashi

Yasuhiro Hara

Yukihito Yukimune

Homare Tabata

Chuzo Suga

Kouichi Matsubara

Naoto Ohnishi

Daisuke Mochizuki

Hitoshi Takahashi

Hideki Sawai

Takashi Mimitsuka

Tadashi Araki

Mitsufumi Wada

Toshihiro Oikawa

Takashi Morishige

Junko Tokuda

Hitoki Miyake

Reiko Abe

Miyuki Kawashima

Mitsufumi Wade

A method for producing D-lactic acid in high yield, and to provide a method for producing D-lactic acid with high selectivity, in which optical purity is high and a by-product organic acid is small. In one aspect, a microorganism, wherein activity of pyruvate formate-lyase (pfl) is inactivated or decreased, and further activity of-derived NADH-dependent D-lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA) is enhanced, is cultured to efficiently produce D-lactic acid. With regard to a method for enhancing ldhA activity, by linking, on a genome, a gene encoding ldhA with a promoter of a gene which controls expression of a protein involved in a glycolytic pathway, a nucleic acid biosynthesis pathway or an amino acid biosynthesis pathway, suitable results are obtained compared to the method for enhancing expression of the gene using an expression vector. A microorganism in which a dld gene is substantially inactivated or decreased is cultured to produce high quality D-lactic acid with reduced concentration of pyruvic acid.

Biocatalyst for production of D-lactic acid

Method of producing a taxane-type diterpene and a method of obtaining cultured cells which produce the taxane-type dilterpene at a high rate

This invention relates to a method of producing a taxane-type diterpene(s) wherein tissues or cells of a plant which produces taxane-type diterpene(s) is cultured in the presence of at least one selected from the group consisting of jasmonic acids, compounds containing a heavy metal, complex ions containing a heavy metal, heavy metal ions, amines and antiethylene agents, a method of producing a taxane-type diterpene wherein the tissues or the cells of the plant are cultured by controlling the oxygen concentration in a gas phase in a culture vessel to less than the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere from the initial stage of the culture, or by controlling the dissolved oxygen concentration in a fluid medium which is in contact with the tissue or the cell to less than the saturated dissolved oxygen concentration at that temperature from the initial stage of the culture, a method of producing a taxane-type diterpene wherein the tissue or the cell of the plant is cultured in a culture vessel, while oxygenic gas containing 0.03-10% of carbon dioxide is used as aeration gas to be introduced to the vessel, and a method of obtaining highly productive cultured cells for the taxane-type diterpene wherein cultured cells of the plant which produces the taxane-type diterpene are separated into a plurality of layers according to the difference in their specific gravities, and the cells contained in at least one layer are cultured, then highly productive cultured cells for the taxane-type diterpene are selected from among those cultured cells. The present invention allows industrial production of a taxane-type diterpene such as taxol which is useful as a therapeutic agent for cancer.

Method of producing a taxane-type diterpene and a method of obtaining

Growing community of inventors

Kuga-gun, Japan

Yosuke Higashi