Enzymes having alpha amylase activity and methods of use thereof

1. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a sequence having at least or about 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1, wherein the nucleic acid encodes a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity; and (b) sequences fully complementary to (a).

2. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid comprising (a) a sequence encoding a polypeptide having alpha amylase activity, wherein the complement of said sequence hybridizes under highly stringent conditions to SEQ ID NO:1, and (b) sequences fully complementary to (a), wherein the highly stringent conditions comprise a hybridization under conditions comprising a buffer comprising 50% formamide at about 37° C. to 42° C.; or, 42° C. in 50% formamide, 5× SSPE, 0.3% SDS, and a wash step comprising use of a buffer comprising 0.15 NaCl for 15 min at 72° C.

3. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein said sequence has at least about 97% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1.

4. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 3 , wherein said sequence has at least about 98% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1.

5. The isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid of claim 1 , wherein the sequence identity is determined using a sequence comparison algorithm comprising FASTA version 3.0t78 with the default parameters.

6. An isolated, synthetic or recombinant nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence having at least about 95% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the polypeptide is capable of hydrolyzing a starch to a sugar.

7. A method of producing a recombinant polypeptide comprising the steps of introducing a nucleic acid encoding the polypeptide into an isolated host cell under conditions that allow expression of the polypeptide, wherein the nucleic acid comprises the sequence of claim 1 .

8. A method of producing and recovering a recombinant polypeptide comprising the steps of: introducing the nucleic acid of claim 1 operably linked to a promoter, into an isolated host cell under conditions that allow expression of the polypeptide, and recovering the recombinant polypeptide.

9. A method of generating an amylase-encoding polynucleotide comprising: obtaining the amylase-encoding nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 and modifying one or more nucleotides in said polynucleotide to another nucleotide, deleting one or more nucleotides in said polynucleotide, or adding one or more nucleotides to said polynucleotide to obtain a modified nucleic acid sequence, wherein the modified nucleic acid sequence encodes an polypeptide having an amylase activity.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the modifications are introduced by a method selected from the group consisting of: effor-prone PCR, shuffling, oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis, assembly PCR, sexual PCR mutagenesis, in vivo mutagenesis, cassette mutagenesis, recursive ensemble mutagenesis, exponential ensemble mutagenesis, site-specific mutagenesis, gene reassembly, Gene Site Saturation Mutagenesis (GSSM) and any combination of these methods.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by effor-prone PCR.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by shuffling.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by assembly PCR.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by sexual PCR mutagenesis.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by in vivo mutagenesis.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by cassette mutagenesis.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by recursive ensemble mutagenesis.

19. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by exponential ensemble mutagenesis.

20. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by site-specific mutagenesis.

21. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by gene reassembly.

22. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modifications are introduced by Gene Site Saturation Mutagenesis (GSSM).

23. A method for comparing a first sequence to a second sequence comprising the steps of: reading the first sequence and the second sequence through use of a computer program which compares sequences; and determining differences between the first sequence and the second sequence with the computer program, wherein said first sequence comprises the nucleic acid sequence of claim 1 or claim 2 .

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the step of determining differences between the first sequence and the second sequence further comprises the step of identifying polymorphisms.

25. A method for identifying a feature in a sequence comprising the steps of: reading the sequence using a computer program which identifies one or more features in a sequence; and identifying one or more features in the sequence with the computer program, wherein the sequence comprises the nucleic acid sequence of claim 1 or claim 2 .

26. A nucleic acid probe for identifying or isolating an amylase-encoding nucleic acid, comprising a nucleic acid that specifically hybridizes under highly stringent hybridization conditions to the amylase-encoding nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 , or its fully complementary sequence, wherein the highly stringent hybridization conditions comprise a hybridization under conditions comprising 50% formamide at about 37° C. to 42° C.; or, 42° C. in 50% formamide, 5× SSPE, 0.3% SDS, and a wash step comprising use of a buffer comprising 0.15 NaCl for 15 min at 72° C.

27. The probe of claim 26 , wherein the nucleic acid comprises DNA or RNA.

28. The probe of claim 26 , wherein the probe further comprises a detectable isotopic label or a detectable non-isotopic label.

29. The probe of claim 28 , wherein the probe further comprises a detectable non-isotopic label selected from the group consisting of a fluorescent molecule, a chemiluminescent molecule, an enzyme, a cofactor, an enzyme substrate, and a hapten.

30. A cloning vector comprising the nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 .

31. An isolated host cell transformed or transfected with the nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 .

32. An expression vector capable of replicating in a host cell comprising the nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 .

33. A cloning vector as claimed in claim 30 , wherein the cloning vector comprises a viral vector, a plasmid, a phage, a phagemid, a cosmids, a fosmid, a bacteriophage, an artificial chromosome, an adenovirus vector, a retroviral vector, or an adeno-associated viral vector.

34. An isolated host cell transformed or transfected with the expression vector of claim 32 .

35. An isolated host cell as claimed in claim 31 , wherein the host is selected from the group consisting of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, funguses, yeasts, plants and non-human metabolically rich hosts.

36. A method of producing a recombinant polypeptide comprising the steps of

(a) introducing a nucleic acid encoding the polypeptide into an isolated host cell under conditions that allow expression of the polypeptide, wherein the nucleic acid comprises the sequence of claim 2 , or,

(b) introducing the nucleic acid of claim 2 into an isolated host cell under conditions that allow expression of the polypeptide, thereby producing a recombinant polypeptide.

37. An expression vector comprising the nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 , wherein the expression vector comprises a viral vector, a plasmid, a phage, a phagemid, a cosmids, a fosmid, a bacteriophage, an artificial chromosome, an adenovirus vector, a retroviral vector, or an adeno-associated viral vector.

38. An isolated host cell transformed the nucleic acid of claim 1 or claim 2 , wherein the cell is a prokaryote cell, a eukaryote cell, a fungus cell, a yeast cell, a plant cell or a non-human metabolically rich host cell.