DNA FRAGMENT ENCODING A POLYPEPTIDE HAVING NITRILE HYDRATASE ACTIVITY, A TRANSFORMANT CONTAINING THE GENE AND A PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF AMIDES USING THE TRANSFORMANT

摘要

Disclosed are amino acid sequences and nucleotide sequences of .alpha.- and .beta.-subunits of two types of nitrile hydratase derived from Rhodococcus rhodochrous J-l. A DNA fragment enclosing the nitrite hydratase is inserted into an expression vector and the recombinant vector is used for transformation. The transformant contains multiple copies of the gene and can produce much higher levels of nitrite hydratase compared with conventionally used microorganisms.