Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. (President & CEO: Tadashi Hirata) has recently succeeded in almost determining the complete genome sequence of Corynebacterium glutamicum, an industrially useful microorganism. The company has already established the genomic database of this microorganism, and started the studies for the application of the genome information as well as the functional analyses.

The company has advanced the genome analysis of a wild type strain of Corynebacterium glutamicum since last year, and almost all the genome domain, which extends to 3.1 megabase, was determined. The company is now finalizing the operation to complete the work.

These results are applied to the analyses of fermentation processes and the development of more efficient processes. At the same time, the company pursue the possibility to establish a highly efficient fermentation system of the future generation by elucidating the characteristics and essential nature of this microorganism, that is regarded to be suitable for the industrial production of amino acids, based on the genome infomation.

Note:
Corynebacterium glutamicum was found in 1956 by Kinoshita et. al, (at the Tokyo Research Laboratories of Kyowa Hakko) as a microorganism to produce L-glutamic acid, one of the flavor enhancers. The microorganism has now been widely used industrially worldwide for the production of various natural amino acids including L-lysine that are used as an animal feed additive.