Succinic acid-producing bacterium and process for producing succinic acid

A method for producing succinic acid, comprising allowing a coryneform bacterium, or immobilized bacterial cells or disrupted bacterial cells thereof, to act on a carbohydrate fermentable by said coryneform bacterium in a reaction liquid containing a carbonate ion, a bicarbonate ion, or carbon dioxide to generate and accumulate succinic acid in the reaction liquid, and collecting succinic acid from the reaction liquid, wherein said coryneform bacterium is Corynebacterium glutamicum or Brevibacterium flavum and has been modified so that an activity of acetyl-CoA hydrolase is decreased by making an acetyl-CoA hydrolase gene on the chromosome of said coryneform bacterium deficient, or by modification of an expression regulatory sequence of an acetyl-CoA hydrolase gene on the chromosome of said coryneform bacterium, wherein the acetyl-CoA hydrolase gene is a DNA as described in the following (a) or (b):

• (a) a DNA comprising nucleotides 1037-2542 in SEQ ID NO:
• 44;
• or
• (b) a DNA that hybridizes with nucleotides 1037-2542 in SEQ ID NO:
• 44 under stringent conditions comprising washing at a salt concentration corresponding to 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 60° C., and encodes a protein having an acetyl-CoA hydrolase activity.