Patent ID: 7422876

Claim:
A method of generating a nucleic acid encoding a cellulase comprising: (a) providing a template nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide having cellulase activity comprising (i) a nucleic acid sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:1, (ii) a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide has at least 90% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:2, (iii) a nucleic acid that hybridizes under high stringency conditions to the complement of the nucleic acid of SEQ ID NO:1 (iv) a nucleic acid that hybridizes under high stringency conditions to the complement of a nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide has the sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, or, (v) sequences complementary to (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv); (b) varying the template nucleic acid of (a) by modifying one or more nucleotides in said sequence to another nucleotide, deleting one or more nucleotides in said sequence, or adding one or more nucleotides to said sequence, thereby generating a variant nucleic acid encoding a cellulase; and (c) selecting a variant nucleic acid that encodes a cellulase, thereby generating a nucleic acid encoding a cellulase.