Decarboxylase and method for producing unsaturated hydrocarbon compound using same

Abstract

With the aim of providing a method allowing production of an unsaturated hydrocarbon compound such as butadiene with high productivity and an enzyme used in the method, the present inventors introduced mutations involving amino acid replacement into various positions of a ferulic acid decarboxylase, and prepared multiple modified forms of the enzyme. Then, the present inventors evaluated those modified forms in terms of the catalytic activity for the production of butadiene, and found as a result that the catalytic activity was improved in the case where, for example, the amino acid at position 395 was glutamine, histidine, asparagine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, lysine, serine, arginine, tyrosine, or phenylalanine.