TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Nucleic Acid: The isolated nucleic acid molecule, cxy1, may encode a fragment of Cxy1. The encoded fragment comprises a carbohydrate-binding domain, a catalytic domain, and a linker region operably linking the carbohydrate-binding and catalytic domains. The cxy1 comprises a fully defined 1269-bp sequence given in the specification. Cxy1-I, Cxy1-Ib, Cxy1-Ic and Cxy1-Id are encoded by the nucleic acid molecule comprising nucleotides 25-1176, 274-1176, 88-1186 and 88-273 of cxy1, respectively.Preferred Cell: The cell is preferably Pichia pastoris. ACTIVITY - None given.    MECHANISM OF ACTION - Xylanase. Culture filtrates were assayed for specific xylanolytic and glucanohydrolytic activity on Birchwood, oat and xylan substrates. The release of reducing ends by the xylanase activity was measured by colorimetric assay. A zymogram (xylanase activity) from an SDS gel, preceded by protein renaturation in non-ionic detergent, revealed a polypeptide of about 44 kDa with an active sequence originating from C. minitans, which had a strong xylanase activity.    SPECIFIC SEQUENCES - The xylanase gene comprises a fully defined 1269 bp sequence given in the specification. It encodes the enzyme xylanase, which comprises a fully defined 384 amino acid sequence also given in the specification.    EXAMPLE - A wild type Coniothyrium minitans strain LRS 2134 was inoculated into liquid potato dextrose broth (PDB) using mycelial plugs from C. minitans grown on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Cultures were grown, harvested and flash frozen. Approximately 3 g of frozen C. minitans mycelia was homogenized and thoroughly mixed with 20 ml of extraction buffer. The mixture was incubated at 37degreesC, then extracted once with 10 ml each of phenol and chloroform, and precipitated with isopropanol. The genomic DNA was suspended in 0.5 ml of ultrapure water. Xylanase amino acid sequences from fungal species Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus aculeatus, Emericella nidulans and Humicola grisea were aligned to search regions of homology. Two regions exhibiting homology were identified. The DNA sequences corresponding to these two regions of homology were directly compared to generate semi-degenerate primers Ff1 and Ff5 in order to amplify a homologous xylanase fragment from C. minitans genomic DNA by PCR.    Ff1 5'-gagaa(tc)agcatgaa(ag)tggga(tc)gc-3'    Ff5 5'-gtc(ag)g(act)(gac)ac(ta)ccccagac(ga)gt-3'    PCR reactions were resolved on a 1.5% agarose gel and visualized under UV light. PCR reactions were purified through SEPHADEX G-50 DNA grade M column and ligated into pGEM-'T PCR vector system. The sequence of the C. minitans 693-bp genomic fragment was obtained from the sequenced pGEM-T clone and entered into an alignment search algorithm (BLAST) to identify homologous sequences. The C. minitans genomic fragment obtained by PCR demonstrated high homology to F-family fungal xylanase originating from F. oxysporum, A. aculeatus, E. nidulans and H. grisea.