• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.333-340
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• 2016

An alkaline protease was purified and characterized from an alkalophilic microorganism, Bacillus sp. DK1122, isolated from soil in central Korea. The optimum temperature and pH for the growth of the producer strain were 40℃ and pH 9.0, respectively. The protease was produced aerobically at 40℃ after 24 h incubation in modified Horikoshi I medium (pH 9.0) containing 0.5% (w/v) glucose, 0.8% (w/v) yeast extract, 0.5% (w/v) polypeptone, 0.1% (w/v) K₂HPO₄, 0.02% (w/v) MgSO₄·7H₂O, 1% (w/v) Na₂CO₃, and 3% (w/v) NaCl. The alkaline protease was purified by 70% ammonium sulfate precipitation of the culture supernatant of Bacillus sp. DK1122, followed by CM-Sepharose chromatography. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 27 kDa on the basis of SDS-PAGE. The optimum temperature and pH for the protease activity were 60℃ and pH 9.0, respectively. Addition of CaCl₂ increased the thermal stability of the purified protease, where 90% of protease activity was retained at 60℃ for up to 3 h. Consequently, it is expected that the alkaline protease from this study, exhibiting stability at pH 7–9 and 60℃, may be promising for application in the food and detergent industries.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.515-521
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• 1994

A bacterial strain, which showed the high protease activity at low temperature and the high tolerance for the surfactant, was isolated from soil and identified as Xanthomonas sp. YL-37. The optimal temperature, initial pH, and cultivation time for the production of the alkaline protease by Xanthomonas sp. YL-37 were 20$\circC , 11.0, and 84 hours, respectively. In the jar fermenter culture of Xanthomonas sp. YL-37, the alkaline protease activity was about 15,000 DU/ml/-broth after cultivating for 108 hours. The optimal pH and temperature for the protease activity were 70$\circC and 11.0, respectively. The protease was relatively stable at the pH range of 7.0~12.0 and at the temperatures below 50$\circC . The protease activity at 20$\circC was about the level of 40% of its activity at 70$\circC . The enzyme was suggested as a serine protease because the enzyme activity was inhibited by phenylmethane sulfonyl fluoride, a serine modifier.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.183-186
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• 2008

Helminthic cysteine proteases are well known to play critical roles in tissue invasion, nutrient uptake, and immune evasion of the parasites. In the same manner, the sparganum, the plerocercoid of Spirometra mansoni, is also known to secrete a large amount of cysteine proteases. However, cysteine protease inhibitors regulating the proteolytic activities of the cysteine protease are poorly illustrated. In this regard, we partially purified an endogenous cysteine protease inhibitor from spargana and characterized its biochemical properties. The cysteine protease inhibitor was purified by sequential chromatographies using Resource Q anion exchanger and Superdex 200 HR gel filtration from crude extracts of spargana. The molecular weight of the purified protein was estimated to be about 11 kD on SDS-PAGE. It was able to inhibit papain and 27 kDa cysteine protease of spargana with the ratio of 25.7% and 49.1%, respectively, while did not inhibit chymotrypsin. This finding suggests that the cysteine protease inhibitor of spargana may be involved in regulation of endogenous cysteine proteases of the parasite, rather than interact with cysteine proteases from their hosts.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.218-225
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• 1999

A protease without tryptic and chymotryptic activities was purified from the hepatopancreas of shrimp, Penaeus orientalis, using Q-Sepharose ionic exchange, benzamidine Sepharose-6B affinity, Mono-Q, and gel chromatography. Molecular weight (M.W.) of the protease was estimated to be 27kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS­PAGE). The amino acid composition of the protease was different from that of protease from P. japonicus or trypsin from P. orientalis. The protease was completely inhibited by benzamidine, $N\alpha-p-tosyl-L-lysine$ chloromethyl ketone (TLCK), and phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) and was not affected by leupeptin, pepstatin, N-tosyl-L-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone (TPCK), iodoacetate, and ethylenediamine tetra acetate (EDTA). The enzyme did not have any activity against Na-benzoyl-DL-arginine p-nitroanilide (BAPNA) or N-benzoyl-L-tyrosine ethyl ester (BTEE) which are specific substrates of trypsin and chymotrypsin, respectively. However, the protease showed hydrolytic activity for a carboxyl terminal of Tyr, Trp, Phe, Glu, and Cys.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.99-107
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• 2009

Strain PUPC1 produces an antifungal protease as well as plant growth promoting enzymes such as 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase and phosphatase. Morphological, cultural, and physiological characteristics as well as 16S rRNA gene-sequence-based phylogenetic analysis confirmed the taxonomic affiliation of PUPC1 as Chryseobacterium aquaticum. The optimum growth of PUPC1 was observed at pH 6.0 and $30^{\circ}C$, and maximum protease production was observed in medium B amended with 1% tryptone, 0.5% sucrose, and 0.005% $MnCl_2$. The protease was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, Sephadex G-75 gel filtration chromatography, and electroelution from preparative SDS-PAGE. The protease had a molecular mass of 18.5 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature stability of the protease were pH 5.0-10.0 and temperature $40-70^{\circ}C$. Chryseobacterium aquaticum PUPC1 and its protease showed a broad-spectrum antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi. Strain PUPC1 also exhibited plant growth promoting traits. The objective of the present investigation was to isolate a strain for agricultural application for plant growth promotion and biocontrol of fungal diseases.

• CELLMED
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.6.1-6.12
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• 2014

Anthrax is the deadly disease for human being caused by Bacillus anthracis. Instantaneous research work on the mode of infection of the organism revealed that different proteases are involved in different steps of pathogenesis. Present study reports the in silico characterization and the detection of pathogenic proteases involved in anthrax infection through protein-protein interaction. A total of 13 acid, 9 neutral, and 1 alkaline protease of Bacillus anthracis were selected for analysing the physicochemical parameter, the protein superfamily and family search, multiple sequence alignment, phylogenetic tree construction, protein-protein interactions and motif finding. Among the 13 acid proteases, 10 were found as extracellular enzymes that interact with immune inhibitor A (InhA) and help the organism to cross the blood brain barrier during the process of infection. Multiple sequence alignment of above acid proteases revealed the position 368, 489, and 498-contained 100% conserved amino acids which could be used to deactivate the protease. Among the groups analyzed, only acid protease were found to interact with InhA, which indicated that metalloproteases of acid protease group have the capability to develop pathogenesis during B. anthracis infection. Deactivation of conserved amino acid position of germination protease can stop the sporulation and germination of B anthracis cell. The detailed interaction study of neutral and alkaline proteases could also be helpful to design the interaction network for the better understanding of anthrax disease.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.627-636
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• 2011

A commercially important alkaline protease, produced by Bacillus sp. RRM1 isolated from the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii (Doty) Doty ex Silva, was first recognized and characterized in the present study. Identification of the isolated bacterium was done using both biochemical characterization as well as 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The bacterial strain, Bacillus sp. RRM1, produced a high level of protease using easily available, inexpensive agricultural residues solid-state fermentation (SSF). Among them, wheat bran was found to be the best substrate. Influences of process parameters such as moistening agents, moisture level, temperature, inoculum concentration, and co-carbon and co-nitrogen sources on the fermentation were also evaluated. Under optimized conditions, maximum protease production (i.e., 2081 U/g) was obtained from wheat bran, which is about 2-fold greater than the initial conditions. The protease enzyme was stable over a temperature range of 30-$60^{\circ}C$ and pH 6-12, with maximum activity at $50^{\circ}C$ and pH 9.0. Whereas the metal ions $Na^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, and $K^+$ enhanced the activity of the enzyme, others such as $Hg^{2+}$, $Cu^{2+}$, $Fe^{2+}$, $Co^{2+}$, and $Zn^{2+}$ had rendered negative effects. The activity of the enzyme was inhibited by EDTA and enhanced by $Cu^{2+}$ ions, thus indicating the nature of the enzyme as a metalloprotease. The enzyme showed extreme stability and activity even in the presence of detergents, surfactants, and organic solvents. Moreover, the present findings opened new vistas in the utilization of wheat bran, a cheap, abundantly available, and effective waste as a substrate for SSF.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.53-59
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• 1995

A protease isolated and purified 51 fold from the culture filtrate of a soil bacterium, Bacillus sp. KUN-17, which was appeared to be a monomeric protein with molecular weight of 38, 000 daltons, was suggested to be involved in the serine (-alkaline) protease (E.C 3.4.21.14) since its activity was selectively inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) and required 40$\circ$C and pH 10.5 for optimal condition. The half-life of the enzyme activity was 1 hr at 55$\circ$C, and the activity was maintained even under high concentrations of SDS or urea. The enzyme was indicated to perform random proteolysis from the fact that most of the chromogenic substrates employed were hydrolyzed by the enzyme. The affinity of the enzyme for natural proteins was approximately 10-times higher than ester compounds, and both substrates showed mutual inhibitory effect competitively for the enzyme activity.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.322-328
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• 1995

A thermophilic bacteria showing proteolytic activity against defatted soybean was isolated from soil. It was identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens based on its morphological and physiological characteristics. The Bacillus amyloliquefaciens NS 15-4 was cultivated at 50$\circ$C by rotary shaking in a medium containing defatted soybean. An extracellular protease from this strain was purified to homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation, ion exchange, and hydrophobic interaction chromatographies. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be approximately 30,000 by SDS-PAGE and the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the enzyme was turned out to be AQSVPYGISQIKAPA. The optimum temperature and pH for the enzyme reaction were 60$\circ$C and 11, respectively, and its thermostability was increased by the addition of calcium ion. The enzyme was inactivated by phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride, suggesting it be a serine protease. Comparing with other commercial proteases, the enzyme showed relatively high proteolytic activity against defatted soybean, a water-insoluble protein substrate.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.501-505
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• 1990

Streptomyces sp. KISl3 isolated from soil was found to produce low molecular weight thiol protease inhibitors. The protease inhibitor production was closely linked to the cell growth and regulated by growth condition. The inhibitor was purified from the culture broth through butanol extraction, silicagel 60 column chromatography, Sephadex LH-20 gel filtration and preparative HPLC. The inhibitor showed specific inhibitory activity to thiol protease such as papain, picin and bromelain. The mode of inhibition against papain to Hammersten casein as a substrate was non-competitive.