Patent ID: 8647839

Claim:
A process for producing glutathione or γ-glutamylcysteine, comprising (a) culturing in a medium a modified bacterial cell having a glutathione transporting activity and a glutathione or γ-glutamylcysteine biosynthesis activity that are higher than the same activities in a parental bacterial cell, (b) forming and accumulating glutathione or γ-glutamylcysteine in the medium, and (c) recovering the glutathione or γ-glutamylcysteine from the culture, wherein the glutathione transporting activity is provided by transforming the parental bacterial cell with (1) a DNA that encodes a protein having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 or a homologous protein having an amino acid sequence having 95% or more homology to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3 and having glutathione transporting activity, (2) a DNA having a coding region comprising the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 28, (3) a DNA that hybridizes with a DNA consisting of a nucleic acid sequence complementary to the coding region comprising the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 28 under stringent conditions, and that encodes a homologous protein having glutathione transporting activity, wherein the stringent conditions comprise (a) hybridization in a solution comprising 50% formamide, 5×SSC solution (750 mmol/L sodium chloride and 75 mmol/L sodium citrate), 50 mmol/L sodium phosphate (pH 7.6), 5×Denhardt′s solution, 10% dextran sulfate, and 20 μg/L denatured salmon sperm DNA at 42° C. overnight, and (b) washing in 0.2×SSC solution at about 65° C., and wherein the glutathione or γ-glutamylcysteine biosynthesis activity is provided by transforming the parental bacterial cell with a DNA that encodes γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (GSHI) or glutathione synthetase (GSHII).