Recombinant microorganisms, plants, and plant cells are disclosed that have been engineered to express a zeaxanthin cleavage dioxygenase alone or in combination with recombinant genes encoding UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs). Such microorganisms, plants, or plant cells can produce compounds from saffron such as crocetin, crocetin dialdehyde, crocin, or picrocrocin.

Provided are: a protein complex capable of selectively and asymmetrically oxidizing an enantiomer of a secondary alcohol without adding a coenzyme and having an asymmetric oxidation activity in a water-soluble solvent system in the presence of oxygen; a method for producing the same; and a method for coating the protein complex with a high molecular weight compound. The method for producing the protein complex includes: (1) enclosing a crude water-soluble protein in a gel, air-oxidizing the gel, and eluting the protein complex into an aqueous solution; and (2) applying gravity to concentrate and precipitate the protein complex, redissolving the precipitate in an aqueous glycine sodium hydroxide solution of about 0.5 mM and allowing the same to homogeneously coexist with a high molecular weight compound, and re-precipitating the solution and dehydrating and drying the same to yield a protein complex coated with a high molecular weight compound.

The invention relates to novel 3-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase mutants, to the sequences which code for these enzyme mutants, to processes for the preparation of the enzyme mutants and to their use in enzymatic conversions of cholic acid compounds, in particular in the preparation of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA); subject-matter of the invention is also novel processes for the synthesis of UDCA using enzyme mutants; and the preparation of UDCA using recombinant, multiply modified microorganisms.

Described herein are plasmid addiction systems comprising a host cell comprising one or more inactivated host cell essential genes; and a plasmid comprising one or more plasmid essential genes operably linked to a constitutively active promoter. Also described herein are metabolism-based plasmid addiction systems (PAS) comprising a host cell and a plasmid operably linked to a constitutively active promoter for producing value-based products (e.g., 1-butanol) and methods of generating PASs in microorganisms and producing 1-butanol from a PAS in the absence of antibiotics and/or co-inducers.

An object of the present invention is to provide enzymes and a DNA encoding the enzymes that are involved in biosynthesis of trehangelin which has the potential to be a therapeutic agent for photosensitivity disorder and cosmetics, and to provide a method for producing trehangelin by utilizing the enzymes and a recombinant microorganism. The present invention is directed to a protein having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7 or 9, or a protein having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7 or 9 in which one to several amino acids are deleted, substituted, added and/or inserted or an amino acid sequence having 60% or more homology with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3, 5, 7 or 9 and having an enzyme activity involved in biosynthesis of trehangelin; and a DNA encoding said protein.

Presented herein are biocatalysts and methods for the production of succinic acid from carbon sources. The biocatalysts include microbial cells that have been engineered to overexpress exogenously added genes that encode enzymes active in the reductive branch of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle.

The present disclosure provides engineered ketoreductase enzymes having improved properties as compared to a naturally occurring wild-type ketoreductase enzyme including the capability of reducing 5-((4S)-2-oxo-4-phenyl (1,3-oxazolidin-3-yl))-1-(4-fluorophenyl) pentane-1,5-dione to (4S)-3-[(5S)-5-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-hydroxypentanoyl]-4-phenyl-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one. Also provided are polynucleotides encoding the engineered ketoreductase enzymes, host cells capable of expressing the engineered ketoreductase enzymes, and methods of using the engineered ketoreductase enzymes to synthesize the intermediate (4S)-3-[(5S)-5-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-hydroxypentanoyl]-4-phenyl-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one in a process for making Ezetimibe.

The present invention provides a novel glucose dehydrogenase that has excellent substrate specificity and that is suitable for use in SMBG. The present invention provides a flavin-bound glucose dehydrogenase having the following characteristics (1) to (5): (1) Temperature stability: stable at a temperature of 45° C. or lower; (2) stable at a pH range of 4.5 to 7.5; (3) substrate specificity: the reactivity to D-xylose, maltose, or D-galactose is 2% or less, based on the reactivity to D-glucose taken as 100%; (4) optimal activity temperature: 34 to 47° C.; and (5) optimal activity pH: 6.3 to 6.7.

The present invention relates to recombinant bacteria producing L-amino acid, in which the recombinant bacteria has reduced expression of the glucose-6-phosphate isomerase gene pgi and improved expression of the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase gene -opcA than the starting bacteria, where the starting bacterium is a bacterial strain that can accumulate target amino acid(s) and preferably, the amino acid is L-histidine.

Provided are a genus Gluconacetobacter microorganism having enhanced cellulose productivity, a method of producing cellulose using the same, and a method of producing the microorganism.