Kao Corporation

Hiroshi Kodama

Katsutoshi Ara

Keiji Endo

Tohru Kobayashi

Hiroshi Hagihara

Akihito Kawahara

Kazuhisa Sawada

Yoshiharu Kimura

Akira Takei

Yoshihiro Hakamada

Yasunao Wada

Shitsu Shikata

Shun-ichi Akiba

Tomomi Ota

The present invention provides a modified promoter, an expression vector and a transformant each containing the promoter, and a method for producing a gene product of interest using the transformant. The invention provides a modified promoter, including a nucleotide sequence of a promoter derived from bacterium belonging to the genusin which at least one nucleotide sequence selected from the following has been modified: a nucleotide sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1; a nucleotide sequence equivalent to the nucleotide sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, except that one or a plurality of bases therein are substituted, deleted, added or inserted; and a nucleotide sequence having a sequence identity of 70% or more with respect to the nucleotide sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1.

Modified promoter

The present invention relates to alkaline cellulase variants having an amino acid sequence which exhibits at least 95% homology with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein said alkaline cellulase variant is mutated to include at least one substitution at (a) position 10, (b) position 16, (c) position 22, (d) position 33, (e) position 39, (f) position 76, (g) position 109, (h) position 242, (i) position 263, (j) position 308, (k) position 462, (l) position 466, (m) position 468, (n) position 552, (o) position 564, or (p) position 608 in SEQ ID NO: 2, or at a position corresponding thereto, wherein said alkaline cellulase variant has alkaline cellulase activity. The present invention also relates to a gene encoding the variant; a vector containing the gene; a transformant containing the vector; and a detergent composition containing the alkaline cellulase variant.

Alkaline cellulase variants

A proteinase-resistant cellulase, a microorganism producing the same, and a process for producing such a proteinase-resistant cellulase is disclosed. The cellulase can be used as an additive to detergent compositions for washing clothes containing a proteinase, without immobilization or stabilization by chemical modification. The proteinase-resistant cellulase can be produced by a novel microorganism, Aspergillus niger KSM-24 [deposited with Fermentation Research Institute, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology (FERM BP-3359)].

Proteinase-resistant cellulase, microorganism producing the same and

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Haga-gun, Japan

Hiroshi Kodama