Production of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods for producing a hyaluronic acid with a desired average molecular weight in the range of 20,000-800,000 Dalton, the methods comprising the steps of: (a) cultivating a recombinant Bacillus host cell at a first temperature conducive to its growth, wherein the Bacillus host cell comprises a nucleic acid construct comprising a hyaluronan synthase encoding sequence operably linked to a promoter sequence foreign to the hyaluronan synthase encoding sequence; (b) then cultivating the recombinant Bacillus host cell of step (a) at a second temperature higher than the first temperature of step (a) under conditions suitable for production of the hyaluronic acid, whereby the Bacillus host cell produces hyaluronic acid with a desired average molecular weight in the range of 20,000-800,000 Dalton; and (c) recovering the hyaluronic acid.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.