Polypeptides having glucoamylase activity and nucleic acids encoding same

An isolated polypeptide having glucoamylase activity, selected from the group consisting of:

• (a) a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence which has at least 90% identity with amino acids 20 to 630 of the mature polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:2;
• (b) a polypeptide which is encoded by a nucleic acid sequence which hybridizes under high stringency conditions with (i) nucleotides 411 to 2581 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 high stringency conditions are defined as prehybridization and hybridizaton at 42° C. in 5× SSPE, 0.3% SDS, 200 μg/ml sheared and denatured salmon sperm DNA, and 50% formamide, and washing with 2×SSC, 0.2% SDS at 65° C.;
• (c) a fragment of (a) or (b), that has glucoamylase activity;
• and
• (d) a polypeptide obtained from Thielavia having glucoamylase activity with physicochemical properties of (i) a pH optimum in the range between about pH 3 and about pH 7. determined at 20° C. in the presence of maltotriose;
• (ii) a temperature optimum in the range of about 20° C. to about 70° C., determined at pH 4 in the presence of maltotriose, and (iii) a residual activity of 32%, relative to initial activity, at pH 4.3 after 20 minutes at 70° C. in the absence of maltotriose.