The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-10 are pending and under consideration.
Priority: This application is a CON of PCT/JP2022/014183, filed March 24, 2022, which claims benefit to foreign application JP 2021-056115, filed March 29, 2021. A copy of the foreign priority document has been received in the instant application on October 23, 2023 and is not in the English language.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Boch et al. (1996 Journal of Bacteriology 178(17): 5121-5129; IDS 08.21.23). The instant specification discloses that cyclic lipopeptides, such as surfactin and iturin, are produced by microorganisms of the genus Bacillus (application publication paragraph 0004).
Boch et al. teach the Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) genes, gbsA and gbsB, whose gene products serve to convert choline into the osmoprotectant glycine betaine (at least p. 5121, 5127). Boch et al. teach gbsA encodes a glycine betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase and gbsB encodes an alcohol dehydrogenase (at least p. 5124). Boch et al. teach a B. subtilis strain comprising deletion of the gbsAB genes (at least p. 5121-5122, 5126-5127). Therefore, Boch et al. can be deemed to anticipate instant claims 1-7.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boch et al. (1996 Journal of Bacteriology 178(17): 5121-5129; IDS 08.21.23) in view of Yoneda et al. (US 20040043451; IDS 08.21.23) and Zhang et al. (2020 Microb Cell Fact 19:223, 13 pages).
The teachings of Boch et al. over at least instant claim 1 are noted above. Boch et al. disclose growth of the B. subtilis strain comprising deletion of the gbsAB genes in culture medium that does not contain glycine betaine aldehyde and choline (at least p. 5127). Boch et al. do not explicitly teach producing surfactin.
Yoneda et al. disclose a process for producing surfactin comprising culturing a Bacillus microorganism in a culture medium comprising bean flour, where the bean is selected from soybean (at least p. 8 claims 1-2). Yoneda et al. disclose the Bacillus microorganism is a B. subtilis, including mutant B. subtilis (at least p. 8 claims 7-8). Yoneda et al. disclose soybean in the culture medium is a nitrogen source and its addition in the culturing of surfactin-producing microorganism produces surfactin in a high concentration in the culture broth (at least paragraph 0043).
Zhang et al. disclose moderate genome reduction can enhance production of surfactin in a Bacillus microorganism (at least p. 1). Zhang et al. disclose genome reduction including deletion of some energy-consuming biosynthesis pathways may be beneficial to enhance production of secondary metabolites, such as surfactin (at least p. 4, 6).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the references and arrive at the claimed method for producing surfactin comprising culturing a Bacillus microorganism comprising deletion of the gbsAB genes in culture medium containing soybean flour (instant claims 8-10). The motivation to do so is given by the prior art. Yoneda et al. disclose a method for producing surfactin comprising culturing a Bacillus microorganism including a Bacillus mutant in a culture medium comprising soybean flour. Boch et al. disclose a Bacillus microorganism comprising deletion of gbsAB, the genes involved in glycine betaine synthesis. Zhang et al. disclose genome reduction of energy-consuming biosynthesis pathways in Bacillus enhances production of surfactin. Therefore, one of ordinary skill would have reasonable motivation to incorporate the Bacillus microorganism comprising deletion of gbsAB of Boch et al. for the Bacillus microorganism in the method for producing surfactin comprising culturing a Bacillus microorganism in culture medium containing soybean flour of Yoneda et al. One of ordinary skill would have a reasonable expectation of success because the prior art discloses Bacillus microorganisms having reduced genes successfully produce surfactin in culture.
No claim is allowed.
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/Marsha Tsay/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1656
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