Appeal No. 93-4005
Application 07/795,158
carried out "to a great extent by lytic enzymes produced by
the same fungi" (page 45, col. 1).
Applicant's claim 6 call for the use of certain ranges of
temperature, pH and time, as well absence of aeration. All
would seem to be result oriented variables. That is, one
having ordinary skill in the art, aware of all the prior art
cited above, would reasonably expect that autolysis would
occur in a fermentation broth containing Ashbya gossypii.
However, one having ordinary skill in the art would have had
to conduct certain experiments to determine how to balance
temperature, pH and time. One biological factor mentioned by
Babayan is removal of oxygen. Babayan explains that removing
oxygen from actively growing cultures of aerobic
microorganisms (Ashbya gossypii is an aerobic microorganism)
causes impaired energy supply to the cells (page 131, under
Biological Inductors (1)), which one having ordinary skilled
in the art would understand would lead to cell death and
autolysis. Based on the record before us, including the prior
art cited above, we conclude that one having ordinary skill in
the art would know what physical, chemical and biological
factors are relevant. One having ordinary skill in the art,
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