A Escherichia coli strain for producing 5-aminolevulinic which has double pdxY genes is provided. A method of producing 5-aminolevulinic acid is provided, the method comprises providing the above Escherichia coli; and inoculating the above Escherichia coli into liquid modified M9 medium containing carbon source, IPTG, glycine, succinic acid and pyridoxal to cultivate the above Escherichia coli thereby producing 5-amino-levulinic. By the above Escherichia coli and the method of producing 5-aminolevulinic acid, the strain with high growth rate and 5-aminolevulinic productivity and the mothed of quickly producing 5-aminolevulinic acid with high 5-aminolevulinic productivity are provided.

Disclosed herein is a porous membrane having an immobilized enzyme wherein the enzyme is immobilized within pores which are three-dimensionally connected to each other. The porous membrane having the immobilized enzyme is three-dimensionally crosslinked in a molecular level wherein nanopores of 5 to 100 nm are interconnected, so that the immobilized enzyme may be in contact with a reactant in all directions, and the reaction solution may be easily diffused, thereby proceeding with the catalytic reaction fast and conveniently without deterioration of material transport.

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of substituted 4-(N′-hydroxy-carbamimidoyl)benzoic acids, which can be obtained by nitrilase catalyzed hydration of substituted terephthalonitriles of formula (II) in an aqueous medium to afford (ammonium) 4-cyanobenzoic acids (IIa). The hydration is followed by treatment of the aqueous reaction medium with hydroxylamine or a salt thereof to afford amidoximes (I).

##STR00001##

The disclosure relates to engineered ketoreductase polypeptides and processes of using the polypeptides for production of phenylephrine.

Provided are methods for synthesizing compounds, including chiral kynurenine compounds. The methods are suitable for large-scale manufacture and produce the chiral kynurenines compounds in high chemical purity and high chiral purity.

Disclosed are transformed cells and related nucleotide and protein sequences, and fermentation compositions and methods, all of which are related to providing selective advantage in fermentation. For example, a selective advantage results from transformation of a cell with a nucleic acid that allows a transformed cell to metabolize one or more nitrogen-, phosphorous-, and/or sulfur-containing compounds that a native cell of the same species as the transformed cell cannot metabolize, and from fermentation of the transformed cell using one or more feedstocks, such as fractioned grain, which are depleted in or free of conventional nitrogen-, phosphorous-, and/or sulfur-containing compounds that a native cell of the same species as the transformed cell can metabolize. Also disclosed are methods for improved oxygen transfer in an aerobic or microaerobic fermentation.

The invention relates to nitrilases and to nucleic acids encoding the nitrilases. In addition methods of designing new nitrilases and method of use thereof are also provided. The nitrilases have increased activity and stability at increased pH and temperature.

The present disclosure provides methods for preparing β-substituted tryptophan compounds. The methods include: combining i) an unsubstituted indole or a substituted indole, ii) a β-substituted serine, and iii) a tryptophan synthase β-subunit (i.e., a TrpB); and maintaining the resulting mixture under conditions sufficient to form the β-substituted tryptophan. The TrpB contains at least one amino acid mutation which promotes formation of an amino-acrylate intermediate. New TrpB variants and new β-substituted tryptophan analogs are also described.

The present invention relates to a mutant microorganism in which a gene that encodes phosphofructokinase-2 is disrupted or deleted to reduce glycolytic flux to thereby improve the ability of the microorganism to produce N-acetylglucosamine, and to a method of producing N-acetylglucosamine using the mutant microorganism. The mutant microorganism according to the present invention has advantages in that it has high resistance to various chemical substances, grows rapidly, is easily cultured, and produces N-acetylglucosamine with high efficiency, indicating that it is useful for production of a large amount of N-acetylglucosamine.

The present application provides engineered polypeptides having imine reductase activity, polynucleotides encoding the engineered imine reductases, host cells capable of expressing the engineered imine reductases, and methods of using these engineered polypeptides with a range of ketone and amine substrate compounds to prepare secondary and tertiary amine product compounds.