Polypeptides having choline oxidase activity and nucleic acids encoding same

An isolated nucleic acid fragment encoding a polypeptide having choline oxidase activity obtained from Fusarium venenatum, selected from the group consisting of:

• (a) a nucleic acid fragment encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence which has at least 95% identify with amino acids 1 to 543 of SEQ ID NO:2;
• (b) a nucleic acid fragment having a sequence which has at least 95% homology with nucleotides 49 to 1677 of SEQ ID NO:1;
• and
• (c) a nucleic acid fragment, encoding a polypeptide having choline oxidase activity, which hybridizes under low stringency conditions with (i) nucleotides 49 to 1677 of SEQ ID NO:1, (ii) a fragment of (i) of at least 100 contiguous nucleotides, or (iii) a complementary strand of (i) or (ii), wherein low stringency conditions are defined as prehybridization and hybridization at 42.degree. C. in 5.times. SSPE, 0.3% SDS, 200 .mu.g/ml sheared and denatured salmon sperm DNA, and 25% formamide, and washing with 2.times. SSC, 0.2% SDS at 50.degree. C.