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

摘要

DNA fragments (H) and (L), encoding polypeptides having nitrile hydratase activity, are new. (H) and (L) encode alpha(H), beta(H) and alpha(L) and beta(L) polypeptide subunits respectively, having sequences defined in the specification. Also claimed are: (1) a recombinant DNA (R) comprising (H) or (L); (2) a transformant transformed with (R); (3) prodn. of nitrile hydratase by culturing the transformant of (2) and recovering the enzyme from the culture; (4) prodn. of amides by hydrating nitriles using the hydratase obtd. in (3); and (5) prodn. of amides by culturing the transformant of (2), and hydrating nitriles to amides using the resultant culture, isolated bacterial cells, treated matter or fixed material. Pref. (H) and (L) have DNA sequences defined in the specification.