Patent ID: 6821756
Filing Date: 2004-11-23
Classification: C12P

Abstract:
A process for producing guanosine diphospho-sugar (â€œGDP-sugarâ€ ) or uridine diphospho-sugar (â€œUDP-sugarâ€ ), which comprises:selecting, as enzyme sources, a) a culture of a microorganism capable of producing guanosine-5â€²-triphosphate (â€œGTPâ€ ) or uridine-5â€²-triphosphate (â€œUTPâ€ ) from a nucleotide precursor, or a treated product of the culture selected from the group consisting of a concentrated product of the culture, a dried product of the culture, a culture supernatant obtained by centrifuging the culture, a concentrated product of the culture supernatant, an enzyme preparation obtained from the culture supernatant, cells obtained by centrifuging the culture, a dried product of the cells, a freeze-dried product of the cells, a surfactant-treated product of the cells, an ultrasonic-treated product of the cells, a mechanically disrupted product of the cells, a solvent-treated product of the cells, an enzyme-treated product of the cells, a protein fraction of the cells, an immobilized product of the cells and an enzyme preparation obtained by extraction from the cells, and b) a culture or cultures of at least one strain of microorganism having genes responsible for production of GDP-sugar or UDP-sugar from a sugar selected from the group consisting of glucose, fructose, galactose, glucosamine, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine, mannose and fucose and GTP or UTP, or a treated product of the culture selected from the group consisting of a concentrated product of the culture, a dried product of the culture, a culture supernatant obtained by centrifuging the culture, cells obtained by centrifuging the culture, a dried product of the cells, a freeze-dried product of the cells, a surfactant-treated product of the cells, a solvent-treated product of the cells, and an immobilized product of the cells wherein the treated product of the culture continues to have the same enzymatic activity as said culture capable of producing UDP-sugar or GDP-sugar from the sugar and UTP or GTP; allowing the enzyme sources, the nucleotide precursor and the sugar to be present in an aqueous medium to form and accumulate GDP-sugar or UDP-sugar in the aqueous medium; and recovering GDP-sugar or UDP-sugar from the aqueous medium.