Patent ID: 7514251

Claim:
Isolated or purified protein having (R,S)-reticuline 7-O-methyltransferase activity, said protein comprising: i) the amino acid sequence illustrated in FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID NO: 2), or ii) a fragment of the amino acid sequence illustrated in FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID NO: 2), said fragment comprising an N- or C-terminal truncation of said amino acid sequence and having at least 350 amino acids, or iii) a variant of the amino acid sequence of FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID NO: 2), said variant having at least 95% identity with the amino acid sequence of FIG. 9 (SEQ. ID NO: 2) over a length of at least 350 amino acids and having amino acid motifs LVDVGGG LVDGGG, PXXDAXXMK, XGKVI, DLPHV, HVGGDMF, and GKERT, wherein X represents any amino acid and wherein said amino acid sequence of i), said fragment of ii), and said variant of iii) possesses (R,S)-reticuline 7-O-methyltransferase activity.