Method for producing selenoneine

A method for producing selenoneine, comprising the step of;

• contacting histidine and selenous acid with a transformant by using as a host organism Aspergillus that has a gene encoding an enzyme of (1) introduced therein as foreign gene and that can overexpress the introduced gene to obtain selenoneine,
• wherein the enzyme of (1) catalyzes a reaction in which hercynylselenocysteine of formula is produced from histidine and selenocysteine in the presence of S-adenosylmethionine and iron (II),
• wherein the gene encoding the enzyme of (1) has the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 1, or the enzyme of (1) has the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 4, and
• wherein formula [I] is:
• wherein the host organism further has a second ne encoding an enzyme of (2) expressed therein,
• wherein the enzyme of (2) catalyzes a reaction in which selenoneine is produced from hercynylselenocysteine of formula [I] using pyridoxal 5′-phosphate as a coenzyme, and
• wherein the second gene encoding the enzyme of (2) has the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 2 or 3, or the enzyme of (2) has the amino acid sequence of SEO ID NO:
• 5 or 6.