Method of continuously producing glutathione using photosynthetic membrane vesicles

A method of producing glutathione, comprising:

• a) a step of generating adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and an inorganic phosphate by irradiating isolated photosynthetic membrane vesicles with light;
• b) a step of synthesizing γ-glutamylcysteine from glutamate and cysteine by γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase while converting adenosine triphosphate generated in step a) into adenosine diphosphate and an inorganic phosphate;
• and
• c) a step of synthesizing glutathione from the synthesized γ-glutamylcysteine and glycine by glutathione synthetase while converting adenosine triphosphate generated in step a) into adenosine diphosphate and an inorganic phosphate,
• wherein the photosynthetic membrane vesicles are chromatophore membrane vesicles isolated from purple non-sulfur bacteria, wherein step b) further comprises adding a substrate selected from a group consisting of glutamate, cysteine, or both, and step c) further comprises adding glycine,
• wherein a relative activity ratio of the isolated photosynthetic membrane vesicles to γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase to glutathione synthetase is within a range of from 25:12:1 to 50:12:1, and
• wherein the steps are carried out under the anaerobic conditions.