Patent ID: 8247201

Claim:
A method for producing an organic acid comprising: A) allowing a substance to act on an organic raw material in a reaction mixture containing carbonate ions, bicarbonate ions, or carbon dioxide gas, wherein the substance is selected from the group consisting of: i) a bacterium belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae which has an ability to produce an organic acid and has been modified so that the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity is enhanced, ii) a product obtained by processing the bacterium of i), and iii) combinations thereof; and B) collecting the organic acid, wherein the bacterium belongs to a genus selected from the group consisting of Enterobacter, Pantoea, Erwinia, Klebsiella, and Raoultella; wherein the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase is encoded by a pckA gene selected from the group consisting of: (a) a DNA comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 64, and (b) a DNA which hybridizes with a nucleotide sequence complementary to a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 64 under stringent conditions comprising washing at 60° C. at a salt concentration of 0.1×SSC and 0.1% SDS, and said DNA codes for a protein having phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity; and wherein the bacterium has been modified by a method selected from the group consisting of: i) increasing the copy number of the pckA gene, ii) modifying an expression control sequence of the pckA gene, and iii) combinations thereof.