Carotenoid ketolase gene
AssigneeE.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorsQiong Cheng, Luan Tao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A ketolase gene has been isolated from Rhodococcus erythropolis AN12 strain encoding a carotenoid modification enzyme of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway. The gene and gene product are the first isolated from a Rhodococcus strain. Six conserved amino acid motifs have been identified as the characteristic of this type of ketolase enzymes. The gene and gene product of the present invention may be used in a variety of ways for the production of keto-carotenoid compounds in a variety of organisms.
Claims12
An isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding a carotenoid ketolase enzyme, selected from the group consisting of:
- (a) an isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding the amino acid equence SEQ ID NO:2;
- (b) an isolated nucleic acid molecule that hybridizes with (a) under the following hybridization conditions:
- 0.1×SSC. 0.1% SDS, 65° C. and washed with 2×SSC, 0.1% SDS followed by 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS;
- or
- an isolated nucleic acid molecule that is completely complementary to (a).
An isolated nucleic acid molecule comprising a first nucleotide sequence encoding a carotenoid ketolase enzyme of at least 532 amino acids that has at least 95% identity based on the Smith-Waterman method of alignment when compared to a polypeptide having the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2;
- or a second nuoleotide sequence comprising the entire complement of the first nucleotide sequence.
A method of obtaining a nucleic acid molecul encoding a carotanoid ketolase enzyme comprising:
- (a) synthesizing an at least one oligonucleotide primer corresponding to a portion of the sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:1 and SEQ ID NO:3;
- and
- (b) amplifying an insert present in a cloning vector using the oligonucleotide primer of step (a);
- wherein the amplified insert encodes a carotenoid ketolase enzyme.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.