Patent ID: 7972829

Claim:
An isolated nucleic acid molecule encoding proline specific peptidase having the following properties: (1) reacts on at least one of the following proline containing peptides and cleaves it at the carboxyl terminal side of the proline residue: Ala-Ala-Pro-pNA, Ala-Phe-Pro-pNA, Phe-Arg-Ala-Pro-pNA wherein pNA represents p-nitoroanilide; (2) has an optimum pH of 6.0-6.5; (3) is stable at pH4-9; (4) has the optimum temperature of 25-30° C.; (5) is stable below 20° C.; (6) its activity is inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride and aminoethylbenzenesulfonylfluoride hydrochloride; (7) has an isoelectric point of 10.2; (8) has a molecular weight of approximately 50,000; and (9) comprises amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 40.