Patent ID: 7485444

Claim:
A method for the fermentative production of at least one sulfur-containing fine chemical selected from L-methionine and S-adenosylmethionine, which comprises the following steps: a) fermenting a coryneform bacteria culture thereby producing the desired sulfur-containing fine chemical, wherein the coryneform bacteria expresses at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence which codes for a protein with methionine synthase (metH) activity, wherein the metH-encoding sequence is selected from the group consisting of: 1) a nucleic acid molecule comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, or a complement thereof; and 2) a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a protein comprising an amino acid sequence which is at least 95% identical to the entire amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, or a complement thereof; and wherein said sequence is less than 70% identical to the entire metH-encoding sequence from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032; b) concentrating the sulfur-containing fine chemical in the medium or in the bacterial cells, and c) isolating the sulfur-containing fine chemical.