Amino acid producing microorganism and a method for producing an amino acid

1. A method for producing an L-amino acid selected from the group consisting of L-lysine, L-tryptophan, L-phenylalanine, L-valine, L-leucine, L-isoleucine and L-serine comprising:

A) culturing in a medium a microorganism which has an ability to produce the L-amino acid, and

B) collecting the L-amino acid from the medium or the microorganism, wherein said microorganism has been modified to increase an activity of pyruvate synthase by a method selected from the group consisting of:

i) increasing the copy number of a gene encoding pyruvate synthase,

ii) modifying an expression control sequence of the gene, and

iii) combinations thereof;

and wherein pyruvate synthase is selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, and

(b) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions, or additions, and has pyruvate synthase activity.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the medium contains ethanol or an aliphatic acid as the carbon source.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the gene encoding pyruvate synthase comprises a DNA selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a DNA comprising the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1, and

(b) a DNA which is able to hybridize with a sequence complementary to the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 under stringent conditions comprising washing at 68° C., 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS and encoding a polypeptide having pyruvate synthase activity.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism has been further modified to increase the activity of ferredoxin-NADP + reductase by a method selected from the group consisting of:

a) increasing the copy number of a gene encoding ferrodoxin-NADP + reductase,

b) modifying an expression control sequence of the gene, and

c) combinations thereof,

wherein said ferredoxin-NADP + reductase is selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8, and

(b) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has ferrodoxin-NADP + reductase activity.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism has been further modified to increase production of ferredoxin or flavodoxin by a method selected from the group consisting of:

i) increasing the copy number of a gene encoding ferredoxin or flavodoxin,

ii) modifying an expression control sequence of the gene, and

iii) combinations thereof,

wherein said ferredoxin is selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 10,

(b) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 10, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has ferredoxin activity,

(c) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 12,

(d) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 12, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has ferredoxin activity,

(e) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 18,

(f) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 18, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has ferredoxin activity,

(g) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 20, and

(h) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 20, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has ferredoxin activity; and

wherein said flavodoxin is selected from the group consisting of:

(i) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 14,

(j) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 14, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has flavodoxin activity,

(k) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid of SEQ NO: 16, and

(l) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 16, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has flavodoxin activity.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism has been further modified to decrease pyruvate dehydrogenase activity by a method selected from the group consisting of:

i) introducing a deletion or mutation into a gene encoding pyruvate dehydrogenase,

ii) introducing a deletion or mutation into an expression control sequence of the gene, and

iii) combinations thereof;

wherein said pyruvate dehydrogenase comprises an E1p subunit, E2p subunit and E3 subunit, and wherein said E1p subunit is selected from the group consisting of:

(a) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 47, and

(b) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 47, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions and additions, and has pyruvate dehydrogenase activity;

wherein said E2p subunit is selected from the group consisting of:

(c) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 49, and

(d) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 49, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and dihydrolipoyl transacetylase activity; and

wherein said E3 subunit is selected from the group consisting of:

(e) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 51, and

(f) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 51, but which includes between 1 and 20 substitutions, deletions, insertions or additions, and has dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase activity.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism has been further modified so that it can aerobically assimilate ethanol by mutating the alcohol dehydrogenase derived from Escherichia coli so that the glutamic acid at position 569 is replaced with an amino acid other than glutamic acid and aspartic acid.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism is a bacterium belonging to a genus selected from the group consisting of Escherichia, Enterobacter, Pantoea, Klebsiella , and Serratia.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism is a coryneform bacterium.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the microorganism is Escherichia coli.

11. A method for producing an L-amino acid selected from the group consisting of L-lysine, L-tryptophan, L-phenylalanine, L-valine, L-leucine, L-isoleucine and L-serine comprising:

A) culturing in a medium a microorganism which has an ability to produce the L-amino acid, and

B) collecting the L-amino acid from the medium or the microorganism, wherein said microorganism has been modified to increase an activity of pyruvate synthase by a method selected from the group consisting of:

i) increasing the copy number of a gene encoding pyruvate synthase,

ii) modifying an expression control sequence of the gene, and

iii) combinations thereof;

and wherein pyruvate synthase comprises the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2.

12. A method for producing an L-amino acid selected from the group consisting of L-lysine, L-tryptophan, L-phenylalanine, L-valine, L-leucine, L-isoleucine and L-serine comprising:

A) culturing in a medium a microorganism which has an ability to produce the L-amino acid, and

B) collecting the L-amino acid from the medium or the microorganism, wherein said microorganism has been modified to increase an activity of pyruvate synthase by method selected from the group consisting of:

i) increasing the copy number of a gene encoding pyruvate synthase,

ii) modifying an expression control sequence of the gene, and

iii) combinations thereof;

and wherein the gene encoding pyruvate synthase is a DNA comprising the nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 1.