Enzyme associated with equol synthesis

摘要

An object of the present invention is to provide enzymes associated with equol synthesis, genes coding such enzymes, and a process for producing equol and its intermediates using the enzymes and genes. The present invention provides a dihydrodaidzein synthesizing enzyme, tetrahydrodaidzein synthesizing enzyme, equol synthesizing enzyme, and genes coding these enzymes. The present invention also provides a process for synthesizing dihydrodaidzein, tetrahydrodaidzein, and/or equol using these enzymes.