Patent ID: 7087413

Claim:
A method of producing hyaluronic acid, comprising the steps of: providing a host cell having at least one expression construct comprising a hyaluronan synthase gene, wherein the hyaluronan synthase gene encodes an enzymatically active hyaluronan synthase that includes at least two amino acid motifs selected from the group consisting of: (i) GKR(E/H)(V/C/A)(M/L/Q)(Y/A)(T/W)(A/G)F(X) 3–7 (SEQ ID NO:11) (A/S/D)(W/V/A)(D/N)(V/A/Y)(F/V/I)(L/Q/V)(T/V/L)(V/C/I) DSDTX(L/I)(D/E/Y)(P/E/K)X(A/S/C)XXE; (ii) (L/M)(S/T/V)(D/S/A)XRY(W/Y/D)XAF(G/N/C) (SEQ ID NO:12) (V/I)ER(A/S)(C/A)QSX(F/T)X(N/C/T)(V/I)(L/Q/S)(C/V) (I/V/C)(S/G)GPL(G/S)XY(K/R); (iii) (D/E)X(W/Y)(X) 2 QXF(L/M)G(X) 2 (C/V)(S/T) (SEQ ID NO:13) XGDDR(H/R/C)LTN; and (iv) (E/D)(T/S/V)P(X) 5 (W/Y/F)(L/I)XQQ(T/N) (SEQ ID NO:14) RW(S/T/N)KS(Y/W/F)(F/C)RE, with X being selected from the group consisting of any amino acid; and wherein the at least two amino acid motifs are found in the relative order of (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) from an amino terminus to a carboxyl terminus of the enzymatically active hyaluronan synthase; and culturing the host cell under conditions appropriate for the production of hyaluronic acid.