The invention discloses a gene for increasing melanin yield. The gene is obtained by mutating Tyr at a 280th position of an amino acid sequence of coding protein of a gene Cjhppd into Phe which is named as Cjhppd Y280F, and a nucleotide sequence of the gene is shown as SEQ ID NO:1. The invention further discloses application of the gene in producing melanin. The gene Cjhppd Y280F can remarkably increase yield of melanin, using the gene to produce melanin has the advantages of simple method, low production cost, short production period, high yield and controllability, and the produced melanin is natural melanin, does not need raw materials from animals and plants and has the advantages of being safe and nontoxic when compared with artificially synthetic melanin. The produced melanin can serve as a raw material to be used for preparing healthcare food, cosmetics for daily use, suntan cream, sun cream, hair blacking agents, thallus protection of biological bacterial fertilizer and enzymepreparations.