Patent ID: 7510861

Claim:
A process for producing a 2-deoxyaldonic acid, comprising the steps of: reacting in a water based medium an aldonic acid or salt thereof with a gluconate dehydratase capable of dehydrating D-gluconic acid to produce 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-gluconic acid, thereby converting said aldonic acid or salt thereof into a 2-keto-3-deoxyaldonic acid; and reacting in a water based medium said 2-keto-3-deoxyaldonic acid with an oxidizing agent, thereby decarboxylating said 2-keto-3-deoxyaldonic acid and reducing the carbon number of said 2-keto-3-deoxyaldonic acid by 1 to produce said 2-deoxyaldonic acid; wherein: said gluconate dehydratase maintains at least 95% of the enzyme activity thereof after being allowed to stand in 30 mM tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane buffer solution with a pH of about 8.5 containing 1 mM of sodium D-gluconate and 1 mM of magnesium chloride at 55Â° C. for 2 hours; and said gluconate dehydratase comprises the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:2.