Patent ID: 7056691

Claim:
A method for identifying a polypeptide having alpha-galactosidase activity comprising the following steps: (a) providing a polypeptide having a length of at least 25 amino acids, and having at least 70% sequence identity to at least 25 consecutive amino acids of the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:4, wherein the polypeptide having the sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:4 has alpha-galactosidase activity; (b) providing an alpha-galactosidase-specific substrate; (c) contacting the polypeptide of (a) with the substrate of (b) under a set of reaction conditions; and, (d) detecting either a decrease in the level of substrate or an increase in the level of a reaction product between the polypeptide of (a) and the substrate of (b), wherein a decrease in the level of substrate or an increase in the level of the reaction product identifies a polypeptide having alpha-galactosidase activity under the tested set of reaction conditions, wherein the alpha-galactosidase activity of the polypeptide identified in step (d) is the same as the alpha-galactosidase activity of the polypeptide having a sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO:4.