Polymerase-encoding nucleic acids and method of making and using them

1. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a consecutive sequence having at least 95% sequence identity to the sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 and encoding a polypeptide having polymerase activity, or (b) sequences fully complementary to the full length of (a).

2. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the polypeptide has polymerase activity at a temperature in a range from about 90° C. to 113° C.

3. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 2 , wherein the polymerase activity is retained at the temperature for four or more hours.

4. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , comprising the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, or, sequences fully complementary to the full length thereof.

5. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the sequence identity is determined by analysis with a sequence comparison algorithm.

6. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a sequence that encodes a polypeptide having polymerase activity having at least 97% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1 or (b) a sequence fully complementary to the full length of the sequence of (a).

7. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a sequence that encodes a polypeptide having polymerase activity having at least 99% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1, or, (b) a sequence fully complementary to the full length of the sequence of (a).

8. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 5 , wherein the sequence comparison algorithm is FASTA version 3.0t78 with the default parameters.

9. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a sequence that encodes a polypeptide having polymerase activity, wherein the polymerase-encoding sequence comprises SEQ ID NO:1, or, (b) a sequence fully complementary to the full length of the nucleic acid sequence (a).

10. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide having polymerase activity and comprising the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:2.

11. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the polypeptide has polymerase activity at a temperature up to 150° C.

12. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the polymerase activity comprises DNA polymerase activity.

13. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the polymerase activity comprises 3′-5′ exonuclease activity.

14. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the polymerase lacks a 3′-5′ exonuclease activity.

15. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the polypeptide has polymerase activity in salinity conditions from 5 mM to 200 mM salt.

16. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid further comprises an expression vector.

17. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 16 , wherein the expression vector comprises a viral particle, a baculovirus, a phage, a plasmid, a cosmid, a fosmid, a bacterial artificial chromosome, a viral DNA or a P1-based artificial chromosome.

18. A method for making a polypeptide comprising:

(a) providing a nucleic acid having a sequence set forth in claim 1 or claim 9 ; and

(b) expressing the sequence, thereby expressing the encoded polypeptide.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the nucleic acid further comprises an expression vector.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising inserting the nucleic acid into a host cell and expressing the sequence in the host cell.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the host cell is a prokaryotic or a eukaryotic cell.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the host cell is a yeast cell, a bacterial cell, a mammalian cell, a fungal cell, an insect cell or a plant cell.

23. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a sequence having at least 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1 and encoding a polypeptide having polymerase activity, wherein the polypeptide has the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 2, and at least one conservative amino acid residue substitution, or (b) a sequence fully complementary to the full length of (a),

wherein the conservative amino acid residue substitution comprises substitution of one amino acid for another of the same class.

24. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 23 , wherein the at least one conservative amino acid residue substitution comprises substitution of one hydrophobic amino acid for another, or substitution of one polar amino acid for another.

25. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 24 , wherein the at least one conservative hydrophobic amino acid residue substitution comprises substitution of at least one isoleucine, valine, leucine or methionine, for another.

26. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 24 , wherein the at least one polar amino acid residue substitution comprises substitution of arginine for lysine, glutamic acid for aspartic acid, or glutamine for asparagine.

27. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid that encodes a polymerase, wherein the polymerase comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:2, or a sequence fully complementary to the full length of said nucleic acid.

28. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid that encodes a polymerase, wherein the polymerase comprises an amino acid sequence that is a variant of SEQ ID NO:2, and the variant polymerase sequence has at least 97% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:2, or a sequence fully complementary to the full length of said nucleic acid.