Solvay Enzymes, Inc.

George Boguslawski

John W Shultz

Sethuraman Subramanian

Josephine Grosch

Proteases are susceptible to autolytic degradation. The method of the invention provides a method to identify susceptible autolysis sites which are cleaved to produce a few discrete fragments. Once identified, amino acid(s) at or in the vicinity of the cleavage site may be chemically modified or the DNA sequence capable of encoding the amino acid present at the site may be changed or deleted by site directed mutagenesis to produce an autolysis stable protease. The invention is particularly applicable to alkaline proteases which are produced in large quantities and used as detergent additives. Stable alkaline proteases could then be used in liquid detergent formulations.

Proteases of altered stability to autolytic degradation

The methods of the invention can be used to identify sites of cleavage of an enzyme in the presence of hypochlorite. It has been found that such cleavage occurs at tryptophan. Chemical modifications or genetic manipulation to change or delete tryptophan can be done to produce a more stable enzyme which retains activity in the presence of hypochlorite. The invention is particularly applicable to alkaline proteases which are useful in detergent compositions.

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South Bend, IN, United States of America

George Boguslawski