Kao Corporation

Yuji Hatada

Susumu Ito

Katsuya Ozaki

Katsutoshi Ara

Shuji Kawai

Kazuaki Igarashi

Hiroyuki Araki

Tsuyoshi Sato

Mitsuyoshi Okuda

Katsuhisa Saeki

Nobuyuki Sumitomo

Yasushi Kageyama

Akinori Ogawa

Masaki Tsumadori

Kenzo Koike

Tohru Kobayashi

Hiroshi Hagihara

Shitsuw Shikata

Yasuhiro Hayashi

Yasunao Wada

Kaori Ikawa

Miyuki Kasai

Atsushi Suzumatsu

The present invention relates to alkaline proteases having high specific activity and strong oxidant resistance. The present invention also relates to alkaline proteases having excellent detergency that are to be added to a detergent.

Alkaline proteases

The present invention is directed to a liquefying alkaline alpha-amylase, and a DNA encoding for the same and functional fragments thereof.

Gene encoding alkaline liquefying &#x3b1;-amylase

The present invention relates to alkaline proteases having high specific activity and strong oxidant resistance. The present invention also relates to alkaline proteases having excellent detergency that is to be added to a detergent.

The present invention provides: a nucleotide sequence encoding alkaline pullulanase and exhibiting both alkaline &agr;-amylase and alkaline pullulanase activity; a nucleotide sequence encoding alkaline &agr;-amylase possessing an amino acid sequence described in SEQ ID NO:3; a nucleotide sequence encoding alkaline pullulanase possessing an amino acid sequence described in SEQ ID NO:4; recombinant DNAs containing these nucleotide sequences, and transformed microorganisms harboring the recombinant DNAs. The technique of the present invention enables mass production of alkaline pullulanase exhibiting both alkaline &agr;-amylase and alkaline pullulanase activity.

Gene for enzyme having both alkaline pullulanase and alkaline alpha-amylase activities

Gene encoding alkaline liquifying alpha-amylase

The invention relates to a mutant &agr;-amylase having an amino acid sequence obtained by making deletion or replacement by another arbitrary amino acid residue of at least a methionine residue at the 202-position or a position homologous thereto among amino acid residues set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, which constitute a liquefying alkaline &agr;-amylase, a gene thereof, and a detergent composition comprising the mutant &agr;-amylase. The mutant &agr;-amylase has the optimum pH in an alkaline range, an excellent &agr;-amylase activity, and high and lasting resistance to oxidizing agents, and is hence particularly useful as a component of detergent compositions containing a bleaching agent and an oxidizing agent.

Mutant &agr;-amylases

The present invention provides a DNA fragment encoding alkaline pullulanase exhibiting alkaline &agr;-amylase activity, alkaline &agr;-amylase possessing both an amino acid sequence described in SEQ ID NO:3 and a DNA fragment encoding the amylase, alkaline pullulanase possessing both an amino acid sequence described in SEQ ID NO:4 and a DNA fragment encoding the pullulanase, recombinant DNAs containing these DNA fragments, and transformed microorganisms harboring the recombinant DNAs. The technique of the present invention enables mass production of alkaline pullulanase exhibiting alkaline &agr;-amylase activity.

Gene for enzyme having both alkaline pullulanase and alkaline &agr;-amylase activities

Detergent compositions containing protopectinase whose optimum pH for the reaction is 7.0 or higher when protopectin or polygalacturonic acid is used as a substrate. The detergent compositions are endowed with remarkable detergency against mud soil.

Detergent composition

Growing community of inventors

Tochigi, Japan

Yuji Hatada