Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Process of utilizing an enzyme or micro-organism to destroy... – Treating animal or plant material or micro-organism
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-11
2001-09-04
Nashed, Nashaat T. (Department: 1652)
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Process of utilizing an enzyme or micro-organism to destroy...
Treating animal or plant material or micro-organism
C435S232000, C435S183000, C435S267000, C435S274000, C435S275000, C536S023200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06284524
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relate to microbial pectate lyase, more specifically to microbial enzyme exhibiting pectate lyase activity as their major enzymatic activity in neutral and alkaline pH ranges; to a method of producing such enzymes; and a method for using such enzymes in the textile, detergent, and cellulose fiber processing industries.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pectin polymers are important constituents of plant cell walls. Pectin is a hetero-polysaccharide with a backbone composed of alternating homogalacturonan (smooth regions) and rhamnogalacturonan (hairy regions). The smooth regions are linear polymers of 1,4-linked alpha-D-galacturonic acid. The galacturonic acid residues can be methyl-esterified on the carboxyl group to a varying degree, usually in a non-random fashion with blocks of polygalacturonic acid being completely methyl-esterified.
Pectinases can be classified according to their preferential substrate, highly methyl-esterified pectin or low methyl-esterified pectin and polygalacturonic acid (pectate), and their reaction mechanism, beta-elimination or hydrolysis. Pectinases can be mainly endo-acting, cutting the polymer at random sites within the chain to give a mixture of oligomers, or they may be exo-acting, attacking from one end of the polymer and producing monomers or dimers. Several pectinase activities acting on the smooth regions of pectin are included in the classification of enzymes provided by the Enzyme Nomenclature (1992) such as pectate lyase (EC 4.2.2.2), pectin lyase (EC 4.2.2.10), polygalacturonase (EC 3.2.1.15), exo-polygalacturonase (EC 3.2.1.67), exo-polygalacturonate lyase (EC 4.2.2.9) and exo-poly-alpha-galacturonosidase (EC 3.2.1.82).
Pectate lyases have been cloned from different bacterial genera such as Erwinia, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella and Xanthomonas. Also from
Bacillus subtilis
(Nasser et al. (1993) FEBS 335:319-326) and Bacillus sp. YA-14 (Kim et al. (1994) Biosci. Biotech. Biochem. 58:947-949) cloning of a pectate lyase has been described. Purification of pectate lyases with maximum activity in the pH range of 8-10 produced by
Bacillus pumilus
(Dave and Vaughn (1971) J. Bacteriol. 108:166-174),
B. polymyxa
(Nagel and Vaughn (1961) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 93:344-352),
B. stearothermophilus
(Karbassi and Vaughn (1980) Can. J. Microbiol. 26:377-384), Bacillus sp. (Hasegawa and Nagel (1966) J. Food Sci. 31:838-845) and Bacillus sp. RK9 (Kelly and Fogarty (1978) Can. J. Microbiol. 24:1164-1172) has been reported, however, no publication was found on cloning of pectate lyase encoding genes from these organisms. All the pectate lyases described require divalent cations for maximum activity, calcium ions being the most stimulatory.
Generally, pectinase producing microorganisms exhibit a broad range of pectin degrading or modifying enzymes. Often the microorganisms also produce cellulases and/or hemicellulases and complex multi-component enzyme preparations from such microorganisms may be difficult to optimise for various applications, they even may contain enzymes with detrimental effect. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pectin degrading enzyme exhibiting only the desired effects e.g. in detergents or different industrial processes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have now found a novel enzyme having substantial pectate lyase activity, i.e. an enzyme exhibiting pectate lyase activity which may be obtained from a bacterial strain of the genus Bacillus, more specifically of the strain
Bacillus licheniformis,
and have succeeded in identifying a DNA sequence encoding such enzyme. The DNA sequence and the deduced amino acid sequence are listed in the sequence listing as SEQ ID No. 1 and 2, respectively. It is believed that the novel enzyme will be classified according to the Enzyme Nomenclature in the Enzyme Class EC 4.2.2.2. However, it should be noted that the enzyme of the invention also exhibits catalytic activity on pectin (which may be esterified) besides the activity on pectate and polygalacturonides conventionally attributed to enzymes belonging to EC 4.2.2.2.
In a first aspect, the present invention relates to a pectate lyase which is i) a polypeptide produced by
Bacillus licheniformis,
ATCC 14580, or ii) a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence as shown in positions 1-341 of SEQ ID NO:2, or iii) an analogue of the polypeptide defined in i) or ii) which is at least 70% homologous with said polypeptide, is derived from said polypeptide by substitution, deletion or addition of one or several amino acids, or is immunologically reactive with a polyclonal antibody raised against said polypeptide in purified form.
Within one aspect, the present invention provides an isolated polynucleotide molecule selected from the group consisting of (a) polynucleotide molecules encoding a polypeptide having pectate lyase activity and comprising a sequence of nucleotides as shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 1 to nucleotide 1026; (b) species homologs of (a); (c) polynucleotide molecules that encode a polypeptide having pectate lyase activity that is at least 70% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid residue 1 to amino acid residue 341; (d) molecules complementary to (a), (b) or (c); and (e) degenerate nucleotide sequences of (a), (b), (c) or (d).
The plasmid pSJ1678 comprising the polynucleotide molecule (the DNA sequence) encoding a pectate lyase of the present invention has been transformed into a strain of the
Escherichia coli
which was deposited by the inventors according to the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure at the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH, Mascheroder Weg 1b, D-38124 Braunschweig, Federal Republic of Germany, on Sep. 25, 1997 under the deposition number DSM 11789.
Within another aspect of the invention there is provided an expression vector comprising the following operably linked elements: a transcription promoter; a DNA segment selected from the group consisting of (a) polynucleotide molecules encoding a polypeptide having pectate lyase activity and comprising a sequence of nucleotides as shown in SEQ ID NO: 1 from nucleotide 1 to nucleotide 1026; (b) species homologs of (a); (c) polynucleotide molecules that encode a polypeptide having pectate lyase activity that is at least 80% identical to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 from amino acid residue 1 to amino acid residue 341; and (d) degenerate nucleotide sequences of (a), (b), or (c); and a transcription terminator.
Within yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a cultured cell into which has been introduced an expression vector as disclosed above, wherein said cell expresses the polypeptide encoded by the DNA segment.
A further aspect of the present invention provides an isolated polypeptide having pectate lyase activity selected from the group consisting of (a) polypeptide molecules comprising a sequence of amino acid residues as shown in SEQ ID NO:2 from amino acid residue 1 to amino acid residue 399; (b) species homologs of (a).
Within another aspect of the present invention there is provided a composition comprising a purified polypeptide according to the invention in combination with other polypeptides.
Within another aspect of the present invention there are provided methods for producing a polypeptide according to the invention comprising culturing a cell into which has been introduced an expression vector as disclosed above, whereby said cell expresses a polypeptide encoded by the DNA segment and recovering the polypeptide.
The novel enzyme of the present invention is useful for the treatment of cellulosic material, especially cellulose-containing fiber, yarn, woven or non-woven fabric, treatment of mechanical paper-making pulps or recycled waste paper, and for retting of fibres. The treatment can be carried out during the processing of cellulosic material into a material ready for garment manufacture or fabric manufacture, e.g. in the desizing
Andersen Lene Nonboe
Lange Niels Erik Krebs
Schulein Martin
Lambris Elias J.
Nashed Nashaat T.
Novozymes A/S
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