Appeal No. 2004-0601 Page 3
Application No. 08/989,140
particularly teach the methods of riboflavin production using yeast transformed
with RIB genes.” Id.
Perkins is cited for teaching “the production of riboflavin using the Bacillus
RIB genes, specifically a single gene or the entire operon transformed into
Bacillus host cells for the overproduction of riboflavin,” and for teaching
“obtaining RIB genes from other sources, including yeast.” Id.
The rejection concludes:
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art
to combine the teachings of Revuelta [ ] and Perkins [ ] to practice
methods of producing riboflavin using recombinantly expressed RIB
genes in a eukaryotic microorganism because Revuelta [ ]
specifically suggest[s] the invention and enable[s] the invention.
One would have been motivated to combine the above teachings
because as taught by Perkins [ ], riboflavin overproduction in
organisms having RIB genes is effective and profitable. Both
Revuelta [ ] and Perkins [ ] teach the profitability and usefulness of
efficient riboflavin production in host cells. One would have had a
reasonable expectation of success that the introduction of S.
cerevisiae RIB genes into S. cerevisiae host cells would
overproduce riboflavin because identical experiments are taught by
Perkins [ ] using Bacillus.
Final Rejection at 5 (emphasis in original).
Appellants argue that while Revuelta discloses the molecular structure of
two genes involved in riboflavin biosynthesis, rib 3 and rib 5, those genes were
isolated through the production of mutants that were defective in the respective
rib gene and complementation of these defective mutants by DNA of a yeast
library. See Appeal Brief, page 3. Appellants assert that neither the way
Revuelta produced the mutants nor how complementation was assessed is
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