Microorganism having increased activity of 3-methyl-2-oxobutanoate hydroxymethyltransferase, and use thereof

1 . A polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 90% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 37, wherein the amino acid corresponding to position 116 of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 37 is substituted with alanine (A, Ala), asparagine (N, Asn), threonine (T, Thr), glutamic acid (E, Glu), serine (S, Ser), valine (V, Val), isoleucine (I, Ile), leucine (L, Leu), aspartic acid (D, Asp), or cysteine (C, Cys).

wherein the polypeptide has an activity of 3-methyl-2-oxobutanoate hydroxymethyltransferase.

2 . The polypeptide of claim 1 , wherein the amino acid corresponding to position 116 of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 37 is substituted with alanine (A, Ala).

3 . The polypeptide of claim 1 , comprising the amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 62 to SEQ ID NO: 71.

4 . A polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide of claim 1 .

5 . A microorganism producing a pantothenic acid or pantoic acid, which comprises the polypeptide according to claim 1 or a polynucleotide encoding the polypeptide.

6 . The microorganism of claim 5 , wherein the microorganism belongs to the genus of Corynebacterium or Escherichia.

7 . The microorganism of claim 6 , wherein the microorganism belonging to the genus of Corynebacterium is Corynebacterium glutamicum.

8 . A method of producing a pantothenic acid or pantoic acid, comprising:

culturing the microorganism of claim 5 in a medium.

9 . The method of producing pantothenic acid or pantoic acid of claim 8 , further comprising, after the step of culturing,

recovering the pantothenic acid or pantoic acid from the cultured microorganism, the medium, or both of them.