Polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase and process for producing the same

Abstract

The present invention relates to polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase having a N-terminal fragment of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 and having a molecular weight of about 33,000 as determined by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; a process for producing polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase, comprising culturing in a medium a microorganism which belongs to the genus Corynebacterium and has the ability to produce the polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase and recovering the polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase from the resulting culture; and a process for producing polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase, comprising culturing in a medium a transformant transformed with a recombinant vector containing a gene of the polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase and recovering the polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerase from the resulting culture. According to the present invention, there can be provided novel PHA depolymerase with the activity of decomposing .omega.-hydroxyalkanoates, particularly 4HB homopolyester or copolymerized polyesters containing said homopolyester, and a process of efficiently producing the enzyme.