Preparing a biopolymer with polyasparate backbone, useful for preparing polyasparate and related copolymers, comprises recombinant expression of specific synthetase

摘要

Preparing a biopolymer (I) that has a polyaspartate backbone and is water soluble at neutral pH, comprises: (a) transfecting an organism that includes a gene (II) encoding a specific bacterial synthetase (III) ; (b) culturing hosts under conditions that allow expression of functional synthetase; and (c) purifying (I) from the organism. Preparing a biopolymer (I) that has a polyaspartate backbone and is water soluble at neutral pH comprises: (a) generating a transgenic uni- or multi-cellular organism that includes a gene (II), encoding a specific bacterial synthetase (III) that has over 25% identity and over 40% homology, both at the amino acid level, with the synthetase from Desulfitobacterium hafniense; (b) (II), or its modified forms, is incorporated into a vector where it is combined with regulatory sequences so that it can be introduced into, and expressed in, a chosen host organism; (c) culturing hosts under conditions that allow expression of functional synthetase so that the host produces (I); and (d) purifying (I) from the organism. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) (I) produced by the new method; and (2) purifying (I).