Recombinant host cells to produce anthranilic acid

A method for producing anthranilic acid comprising culturing a recombinant bacterium and optionally, recovering anthranilic acid, wherein the non-modified bacterium corresponding to said recombinant bacterium expresses a bifunctional protein exhibiting TrpG and TrpD activities and the recombinant bacterium has been genetically modified to separately express (i) a polypeptide which exhibits glutamine amidotransferase activity (TrpG) and does not exhibit anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase activity, and (ii) a polypeptide which exhibits anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase activity (TrpD) and does not exhibit glutamine amidotransferase activity, and to decrease the ratio between anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase activity and anthranilate synthase activity by comparison to the non-modified bacterium, said recombinant bacterium being able to grow in a culture medium lacking tryptophan.

A recombinant bacterium that expresses a bifunctional protein exhibiting TrpG and TrpD activities and that has been genetically modified to separately express (i) a polypeptide which exhibits glutamine amidotransferase activity (TrpG) and does not exhibit anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase activity, and (ii) a polypeptide which exhibits anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase activity (TrpD) and does not exhibit glutamine amidotransferase activity, and to decrease the ratio between anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase activity and anthranilate synthase activity by comparison to the non-modified bacterium, said recombinant bacterium being able to grow in a culture medium lacking tryptophan.

The recombinant bacterium of claim 33, which is an Escherichia coli bacterium which has been genetically modified to comprise a nucleic acid sequence encoding glutamine amidotransferase (TrpG) under the control of a first promoter and a nucleic acid sequence encoding anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase (TrpD) under the control of a second promoter.