Polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme and process for producing the same

A process for producing a recombinant polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme, comprising the steps of:

• transforming a microorganism by introducing a replicable recombinant DNA, which comprises a DNA encoding a polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme and an autonomously replicable vector, into the microorganism to obtain a transformant capable of expressing the polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme encoded by the DNA;
• culturing the transformant in a nutrient medium;
• and
• collecting the recombinant polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme from the resulting culture,
• wherein said recombinant polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme comprises the following characteristics (1) to (3):
• (1) comprising an activity of oxidizing polyvinyl alcohol and forming hydrogen peroxide;
• (2) comprising an activity of hydrolyzing β-diketone;
• and
• (3) exhibiting a molecular weight of 100,000±20,000 in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis,
• and wherein said polyvinyl alcohol-degrading enzyme comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 2 or SEQ ID NO:
• 3, or an amino acid sequence comprising a deletion, a replacement, or an addition of one or more amino acid residues in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 2 or SEQ ID NO:
• 3 while retaining the polyvinyl alcohol-degrading activity and comprising 84% or higher (sequence identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:
• 2 or SEQ ID NO:
• 3.