Compositions and Methods Comprising Alpha-Amylase Variants with Altered Properties

An isolated alpha-amylase variant, wherein said variant is a mature form of alpha-amylase having amylase activity, and comprising a substitution at one or more positions selected from the group consisting of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 35, 36, 37, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 78, 83, 87, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 104, 105, 107, 108, 110, 112, 113, 116, 118, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 134, 136, 138, 142, 144, 147, 149, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 161, 162, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 172, 174, 177, 178, 182, 183, 185, 189, 192, 195, 197, 201, 202, 203, 207, 210, 214, 217, 221, 228, 234, 236, 237, 246, 250, 254, 255, 257, 264, 267, 269, 270, 272, 275, 279, 283, 284, 298, 301, 303, 305, 306, 310, 311, 314, 318, 319, 320, 322, 323, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 344, 359, 374, 375, 376, 377, 379, 381, 382, 393, 394, 399, 401, 407, 408, 419, 433, 436, 438, 444, 447, 448, 451, 453, 459, 465, 470, 475, 476, 483, and 484;

• wherein the positions correspond to amino acid residues in the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:
• 2;
• and
• wherein the substitution of the naturally-occurring amino acid residue at the one or more positions for a different amino acid residue produces an alpha-amylase variant having a performance index >1.0 for a measure of stability, and a performance index >1.0 for a measure of activity.