Patent ID: 8497104

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 (PckA) activity is enhanced, and the glucose phosphotransferase activity (PtsG) is decreased, (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 Escherichia, Enterobacter, Pantoea, Erwinia, Klebsiella , and Raoultella ; 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; wherein the pckA gene is selected from the group consisting of: (a) a DNA comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOS: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18, and (b) a DNA which hybridizes with a nucleotide sequence complementary to a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOS: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 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.