NEW MICROORGANISM AND ITS UTILIZATION

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a new microorganism belonging to the genus Deleya and having the ability to produce a maleate isomerase and capable of efficiently producing fumaric acid from maleic acid at a high concentration. SOLUTION: This new microorganism Deleya halophila L-111 (FERM P-16018) belongs to Deleya halophila species belonging to the genus Deleya and is capable of producing a maleate isomerase and further efficiently producing fumaric acid at a high concentration by bringing a crude enzyme fraction or a purified enzyme of the maleate isomerase collected from a microbial cell of the microorganism or its cultured product into contact with an aqueous solution containing maleic acid. The microorganism is obtained by aerobically culturing a soil sample collected from the natural world in a culture medium containing the maleic acid as a carbon source, isolating the grown colony, selecting a maleic acid assimilating microorganism and then sorting out a strain having the high ability to produce the fumaric acid.