The Bacillus animal type alpha-amylase (BAA) gene was cloned and sequenced. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence revealed that the N-terminal catalytic region of BAA was homologous to animal and Streptomyces alpha-amylases rather than to other bacterial amylases. In the C-terminal region, a repeated sequence containing two blacks of 90 amino acid residues each, which was conserved in some bacterial amylases, was found.