Delta 4,5 glycuronidase compositions and methods related thereto

1. A method for the recombinant production of substantially pure Δ4, 5 glycuronidase, comprising:

a) introducing into a host cell an isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having Δ4, 5 glycuronidase activity, wherein the isolated nucleic acid molecule is selected from the group consisting of:

(i) nucleic acid molecules which hybridize under stringent conditions to a nucleic acid molecule having a nucleotide sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO:2, wherein the hybridization conditions are hybridization at 65° C. in hybridization buffer comprising 3.5× (0.15M sodium chloride/0.015M sodium citrate, pH7), 0.02% Ficoll, 0.02% polyvinyl pyrrolidone, 0.02% bovine serum albumin, 25 mM NaH 2 PO 4 , pH 7, 0.5% sodium dodecylsulphate and 2 mM ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid,

(ii) nucleic acid molecules that differ from the nucleic acid molecules of (i) in codon sequence only due to degeneracy of the genetic code, and

(iii) full complements of (i) or (ii);

b) expressing recombinant Δ4, 5 glycuronidase in the host cell; and

c) isolating the recombinant Δ4, 5 glycuronidase from the host cell to produce substantially pure Δ4, 5 glycuronidase.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid encodes Δ4, 5 glycuronidase comprises SEQ ID NO:2.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid encodes Δ4, 5 glycuronidase comprises SEQ ID NO:4.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid encodes Δ4, 5 glycuronidase having the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NO: 1.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid encodes Δ4, 5 glycuronidase having the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NO: 3.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid is operably linked to a promoter.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein an expression vector comprises the nucleic acid that is operably linked to a promoter.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the expression vector is a prokaryotic or eukaryotic expression vector.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substantially pure Δ4, 5 glycuronidase is greater than about 91% free of contaminants.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substantially pure Δ4, 5 glycuronidase is greater than about 95% free of contaminants.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substantially pure Δ4, 5 glycuronidase is greater than about 99% free of contaminants.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recombinant Δ4, 5 glycuronidase is isolated using chromatography or electrophoresis.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substantially pure Δ4, 5 glycuronidase further comprises a detectable moiety, a linker molecule, a fatty acid, or a fusion protein.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the host cell is selected from the group consisting of: yeast, fungi, insect cells, mammalian cells, E. coli, Flavobacterium heparinum, Bacillus, Streptomyces, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Serratia.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the expression vector is selected from the group consisting of: pBR322, pUC18, pUC19, ColE1, pSC101, pACYC 184, πVX, pC194, pC221, pT127, λgt10, λgt11, BPV, EBV, SV40, 2-micron circle, pMAM-neo, and pKRC.

16. The method of claim 6 , wherein the promoter is selected from the group consisting of: int promoter; bla promoter; CAT promoter; bacteriophage λ (P L and P R ) promoter; E. coli promoter trp, recA, lacZ, lacI, gal; α-amylase promoter; B. subtilis ζ-28-specific promoter, actin promoter, collagen promoter, myosin promoter, mouse metallothionein I gene promoter; TK promoter of Herpes virus; SV40 early promoter; and yeast gal4 gene sequence promoter.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the detectable moiety is a 6× His tag and the host cell is a bacterial cell.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the method comprises harvesting and lysing the bacterial cell to obtain a crude lysate; fractionating and filtering the crude lysate; purifying the recombinant Δ4, 5 glycuronidase by metal chelation chromatography; and cleaving the 6× His tag with thrombin.