Patent ID: 7749742

Claim:
A method for producing a peptide having three or more amino acid residues, comprising: forming the peptide having three or more amino acid residues with an enzyme or enzyme-containing substance, wherein the enzyme or enzyme-containing substance has an ability to use as substrates an amine component having two or more amino acid residues and a carboxy component, to form a peptide having one more peptide bond than the amine component; wherein said carboxy component is an amino acid ester or an amino acid amide; wherein said amine component is selected from the group consisting of an unprotected peptide having two or more amino acid residues, a C-protected peptide having two or more amino acid residues, and a peptide having two or more amino acid residues and having a C-terminal amine in place of an amino acid; wherein said carboxy component has an unprotected amino group; wherein said peptide having three or more amino acid residues contains an amino acid residue derived from said carboxy component at the N-terminus thereof; and wherein the enzyme or enzyme in said enzyme-containing substance is selected from the group consisting of a protein having the amino acid sequence consisting of amino acid residues 23 to 616 of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, a protein having an amino acid sequence including substitution, deletion, insertion, and/or addition of one to ten amino acids in the amino acid sequence consisting of amino acid residues 23 to 616 of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, a protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, a protein containing a mature protein region, the protein having an amino acid sequence including substitution, deletion, insertion, and/or addition of one to ten amino acids in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 6, a product of a microbe that has been transformed so as to express a protein encoded by the polynucleotide consisting of nucleotides 127 to 1908 of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5, and a product of a microbe that has been transformed so as to express a protein encoded by the polynucleotide consisting of nucleotides 61 to 1908 of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5.