The present invention relates to a method for preparing 7-dehydrocholesterol and/or the biosynthetic intermediates and/or secondary products thereof by culturing organisms, in particular yeasts. Furthermore, the invention relates to the preparation of the nucleic acid constructs required for preparing the genetically modified organisms and to said genetically modified organisms, in particular yeasts, themselves.

The present invention encompasses vaccines or compositions comprising the chimeric KSAC protein that possesses immunogenic and protective properties, and methods of use including administering to an animal the antigenic KSAC protein thereof to protect animals. The invention also encompasses methods for making and producing the soluble, disaggregated, refolded or active proteins from inclusion bodies produced from prokaryotes or eukaryotes.

The present invention discloses a S-adenosyl-L-methionine 24-sterol-C-methyltransferase mutant C24MTgm-M11. Strain MG1655 (ptsG fumAC fumB, panD, aspA, C24MTgm) is constructed based on the polynucleotide encoding the enzyme mutant. Strain MG1655 (pts GfumAC fumB, panD, aspA, C24MTgm-M11) can produce 480 mg/L 3-aminoisobutyric acid under shake flask fermentation. Compared to the wild type strain C24MTgm, the strain containing mutant C24MTgm-M11 has a significantly improved ability to produce 5.8 times' 3-aminobutyric acid.

The present invention relates to genetically-modified oleaginous yeasts for producing non-native sterols at commercially useful levels, especially for example in providing sterols individually or as a mixture in an artificial dietary composition for honeybees or other insects or animals. For this purpose, an oleaginous yeast, e.g. Yarrowia lipolytica, may be employed wherein the yeast has reduced production of ergosterol compared with a wild-type oleaginous yeast or is incapable of producing ergosterol and is provided with a sterol surrogate to aid growth. From such yeast, however, other yeast may be engineered which retain useful sterol production without need for a sterol surrogate, e.g. production of sterol mixtures in which 24-methylenecholesterol or campesterol is the dominant sterol.