n-Terminal Amino Acid Sequences of Neutral Proteases from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Bacillus subtilis: Identification of a Neutral Protease Gene Cloned in Bacillus subtilis

Bacillus subtilis 1A20 transformed with a hybrid plasmid, pNP150, to which a DNA fragment from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens F was attached, produced a large amount of a neutral protease. To identify the origin of the gene specifying this neutral protease, neutral proteases from B. amyloliquefaciens F, B. subtilis NP58 (a derivative of Marburg 6160), and B. subtilis 1A20 transformed with pNP150 were purified. We investigated their immunological properties and primary structures.

The proteases from these two species were indistinguishable by chromatography, but they were distinguishable from each other by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and double immunodiffusion. Amino acid sequencing of these two proteases by Edman degradation showed that there were four substitutions in the 20-residue amino acid sequence from the N-termini.

Neutral protease from the transformant had the same immunological characteristics and N-terminal amino acid sequence as that from B. amyloliquefaciens. These results meant that the gene in question was derived from a gene specifying the neutral protease in this bacterium.     

Cloning and expression of the gene for neutral protease of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens in Bacillus subtilis

A Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease gene was cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis.The chromosomal DNA of B. amyloliquefaciens strain F was partially digested with restriction endonuclease Sau3AI, and 2 to 9 kb fragments isolated were ligated into the BamHI site of plasmid pUB110. Then, B. subtilis strain 1A289 was transformed with the hybrid plasmids by the method of protoplast transformation and kanamycin-resistant transformants were screened for the formation of large halo on a casein plate. A transformant that produced a large amount of an extracellular neutral protease harbored a plasmid, designated as pNP150, which contained a 1.7 kb insert.The secreted neutral protease of the transformant was found to be indistinguishable from that of DNA donor strain B. amyloliquefaciens by double immunodiffusion test and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.The amount of the neutral protease activity excreted into culture medium by the B. subtilis transformed with pNP150 was about 50-fold higher than that secreted by B. amyloliquefaciens. The production of the neutral protease in the transformant was partially repressed by addition of glucose to the medium.     

Extracellular production of human growth hormone by a head portion of the prepropeptide derived from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease in Bacillus subtilis

A hybrid plasmid phGH928 was constructed which contains a human growth hormone gene following a region coding for the promoter and head portion of prepropeptide composed of 48 amino acid residues from the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease gene. This plasmid permitted efficient secretion of the hormone in Bacillus subtilis. The N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis suggested that the prepropeptide was deleted during secretion. It showed also that the secreted hormone contained additional amino acid sequences derived from the junction between the prepropeptide coding region and the mature human growth hormone gene sequence. We confirmed that the secreted hormone was biologically active stimulating the growth of rat lymphoma cell.     

Secretion of human growth hormone in Bacillus subtilis using prepropeptide coding region of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease gene

Using a secretion vector plasmid pES150, which contained a region coding for promoter and prepropeptide of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease gene (Honjo et al. (1985) J. Biotechnol. 2, 73–84), a hybrid plasmid pES150GH was constructed. The plasmid pES150GH possesses a mature human growth hormone gene following the prepropeptide coding region. Bacillus subtilis N325 harboring pES150GH produced growth hormone in the medium. The secreted hormone was indistinguishable immunologically from human pituitary growth hormone on double immunodiffusion test. The level of secretory production of growth hormone by B. subtilis reached 40–50 mg l⁻¹ of the culture. The size of the hormone secreted by B. subtilis was approximately 23 K on SDS-PAGE. This value was rather large in comparison with that of natural growth hormone (22 K). It was observed that 99% of synthesized growth hormone was excreted into the medium and that the mode of secretion was co-translational. The secreted growth hormone (23 K) is suggested to be degraded to a 15 K form in the culture medium by proteolysis.     

Bacillus subtilis secretes a foreign protein by the signal sequence of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease

Summary We constructed a secretion plasmid in which a truncated penicillinase gene of Bacillus licheniformis was introduced at the end of the signal peptide coding region of a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens neutral protease gene. A Bacillus subtilis recombinant secreted about 140 mg/liter of the penicillinase into the medium. Analysis of the purified product revealed that it was a mixture of two penicillinases containing one or two additional amino acids at the NH₂-terminus of B. licheniformis exo-small penicillinase.     

Structure of the beta-1,3-1,4-glucanase gene of Bacillus macerans: homologies to other beta-glucanases

Summary The nucleotide sequence of an 852 base pair (bp) DNA fragment containing the entire gene coding for thermostable beta- 1,3-1,4-glucanase ofBacillus macerans has been determined. ThebglM gene comprises an open reading frame (ORF) of 711 by (237 codons) starting with ATG at position 93 and extending to the translational stop codon TAA at position 804. The deduced amino acid sequence of the mature protein shows 70% homology to published sequences of mesophilic beta- 1,3-1,4-glucanases fromB. subtilis andB. amyloliquefaciens. The sequence coding for mature beta-glucanase is preceded by a putative signal peptide of 25 amino acid residues, and a sequence resembling a ribosome-binding site (GGAGG) before the initiation codon. By contrast with the processed protein, the N-terminal amino acid sequence constituting the putative leader peptide bears no or only weak homology to signal peptides of mesophilicBacillus endo-beta-glucanases. TheB. macerans signal peptide appears to be functional in exporting the enzyme to the periplasm inE. coli. More than 50% of the whole glucanase activity was localized in the periplasmic space and in the supernatant. Whereas homology to endo-1,4-beta-glucanases is completely lacking, a weak amino acid homology between the sequence surrounding the active site of phage T4 lysozyme and a sequence spanning residues 126 through 161 ofB. macerans endo-beta-glucanase could be identified.     

Complete Amino Acid Sequence of Neutral Protease from Bacillus subtilis var. amylosacchariticus

The neutral protease of Bacillus subtilis var. amylosacchariticus was cleaved chemically or digested with proteolytic enzymes, and the resultant peptides were separated and purified by high performance liquid chromatography. The sequence analyses of these peptides by the manual Edman procedure established the complete amino acid sequence of the enzyme. The neutral protease consisted of 300 amino acid residues with Ala and Leu as its amino- and carboxyl-termini, respectively, and the molecular weight was calculated to be 32,633. The sequence was found to be identical to that of B. subtilis 1A72 neutral protease, which was deduced from nucleotide sequencing. Comparison of the sequence with those of other Bacillus proteases revealed that the putative active site amino acid residues, Zn-binding ligands, and two Ca-binding sites were well conserved among them, as compared with those of thermolysin.     

Expression ofBordetella pertussis toxin subunits inBacillus subtilis

Summary Pertussis toxin subunits (S1–S5) were expressed inBacillus subtilis using a vector with the promoter, Shine-Dalgarno sequence and the sequence coding for the first 7 amino acids of the signal sequence of the -amylase gene fromB. amyloliquefaciens. The use of this vector resulted in a high level of intracellular expression of each pertussis toxin subunit as aggregates in the cytoplasm ofB. subtilis.     

Production of cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferase of Bacillus circulans var. alkalophilus ATCC21783 in B. subtilis

Summary The cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase, E.C. 2.4.1.19) gene from an alkalophilic Bacillus circulans var. alkalophilus ATCC21783 was cloned into Escherichia coli and B. subtilis. When cloned from E. coli to B. subtilis, the entire insert containing the CGTase gene was, depending on the plasmid construction, either unstable or the recombinant B. subtilis did not secrete the enzyme in significant amounts. To achieve efficient enzyme production in B. subtilis, the gene was placed under the control of the B. amyloliquefaciens -amylase promoter. In one of the constructions, both the promoter and the signal sequence of the gene were replaced with those of B. amyloliquefaciens, whereas in another construction only the promoter area was exchanged. The recombinant B. subtilis clones transformed with these plasmid constructions secreted CGTase into the culture medium 14 times as much as did the parental strain in shake flask cultures. In fermentor cultures in an industrially feasible medium the enzyme production was substantially higher, yielding 1.2 g/l of CGTase, which is about 33 times the amount of the enzyme produced by the parental strain in corresponding fermentations. Both of the plasmid constructions were stable when grown over 50 generations without antibiotic selection.     

Effects of degU32(Hy), degQa and degR Pleiotropic Regulatory Genes on the Growth and Protease Fermentation of Bacillus Subtilis Ki-2-132

Effects of degU32 (Hy), degR genes from Bacillus subtilis 168 and deg Qa gene from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens on Bacillus subtilis Ki-2-132 cell growth, sporulation and protease fermentation were investigated by introducing these genes into B. subtilis Ki-2-132 chromosome and/or cytoplasm. Although the genes come from different species and strains, they showed pleiotropic effects in B. subtilis Ki-2-132. B. subtilis Ki-2-132degU32 (Hy) showed increased protease production, and when cooperating with deg Qa either in plasmid or in chromosome, further altered cell growth, increased protease production and affected the spore formation in a glucose and dosage dependent manner. By contrast, degR did not significantly affect the protease productivity in degU32 (Hy) mutant, consisting with that DegR was used to stabilise DegU-phosphate, which in degU32 (Hy) strain no longer further amplify the DegU-phosphate effect.     

Peptide Ligands That Bind Selectively to Spores of Bacillus subtilis and Closely Related Species

As part of an effort to develop detectors for selected species of bacterial spores, we screened phage display peptide libraries for 7- and 12-mer peptides that bind tightly to spores of Bacillus subtilis. All of the peptides isolated contained the sequence Asn-His-Phe-Leu at the amino terminus and exhibited clear preferences for other amino acids, especially Pro, at positions 5 to 7. We demonstrated that the sequence Asn-His-Phe-Leu-Pro (but not Asn-His-Phe-Leu) was sufficient for tight spore binding. We observed equal 7-mer peptide binding to spores of B. subtilis and its most closely related species, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and slightly weaker binding to spores of the closely related species Bacillus globigii. These three species comprise one branch on the Bacillus phylogenetic tree. We did not detect peptide binding to spores of several Bacillus species located on adjacent and nearby branches of the phylogenetic tree nor to vegetative cells of B. subtilis. The sequence Asn-His-Phe-Leu-Pro was used to identify B. subtilis proteins that may employ this peptide for docking to the outer surface of the forespore during spore coat assembly and/or maturation. One such protein, SpsC, appears to be involved in the synthesis of polysaccharide on the spore coat. SpsC contains the Asn-His-Phe-Leu-Pro sequence at positions 6 to 10, and the first five residues of SpsC apparently must be removed to allow spore binding. Finally, we discuss the use of peptide ligands for bacterial detection and the use of short peptide sequences for targeting proteins during spore formation.     

Cloning and nucleotide sequence of the highly thermostable neutral protease gene from Bacillus stearothermophilus

The gene (nprM) for the highly thermostable neutral protease of Bacillus stearothermophilus MK232 was cloned in Bacillus subtilis using pTB53 as a vector. The nucleotide sequence of nprM and its flanking regions was determined. The DNA sequence revealed only one large open reading frame, composed of 1656 base pairs and 552 amino acid residues. A Shine-Dalgarno (SD) sequence was found 12 bases upstream from the translation start site (ATG). A possible promotor sequence (TTTTCC for the -35 region and TATTGT for the -10 region), which was nearly identical to the promoter for another thermostable neutral protease gene, nprT, was also found about 40 bases upstream of the SD sequence. The deduced amino acid sequence contained a signal sequence in its amino-terminal region. The sequence of the first five amino acids of purified extracellular protease completely matched residues 237-241 of the open reading frame. This suggests that the enzyme is translated as a large polypeptide containing a pre-pro structure as is known for other neutral proteases. The amino acid sequence of the extracellular form of this protease (316 amino acids, molecular mass 34,266 Da) was identical to that of the thermostable neutral protease (thermolysin) from Bacillus thermoproteolyticus except for two amino acid substitutions (Asp37 to Asn37 and Glu119 to Gln119). The G + C content of the coding region of nprM was 42 mol%, while that of the third letter of the codons was lower (36 mol%). This extremely low content is an exceptional case for genes from thermophiles. When the protease genes, nprM and nprT, were cloned on pTB53 in B. subtilis, the expression of nprM was about 20 times higher than that of nprT. The reason for the difference between the two systems is discussed.     

BSF1 fibrinolytic enzyme from a marine bacterium Bacillus subtilis A26: Purification,biochemical and molecular characterization

A novel fibrinolytic enzyme, subtilisin BSF1, from a newly isolated Bacillus subtilis A26 was purified, characterized and the gene was isolated and sequenced. The subtilisin BSF1 was purified to homogeneity by five-step procedure with a 4.97-fold increase in specific activity and 6.28% recovery. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 28 kDa by SDS-PAGE and gel filtration. The purified enzyme exhibited high fibrinolytic activity on fibrin agar plates.Interestingly, the enzyme was highly active over a wide range of pH from 7.0 to 12.0, with an optimum at pH 9.0. The relative activities at pH 10.0 and 11.0 were 97.8% and 85.2% of that at pH 9.0. The optimum temperature for enzyme activity was 60 °C. The activity of subtilisin BSF1 was totally lost in the presence of PMSF, suggesting that the purified enzyme is a serine protease. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the first 11 amino acids (aa) of the purified fibrinolytic enzyme was AQSVPYGISQI.The bsf1 gene encoding the subtilisin BSF1 was isolated and its DNA sequence was determined. The bsf1 gene consisted of 1146 bp encoding a pre-pro-protein of 381 amino acids organized into a signal peptide (29 aa), a pro-peptide (77 aa) and a mature domain (275 aa). The deduced amino acids sequence of the mature enzyme (BSF1) differs from those of nattokinase from B. subtilis natto and subtilisin DFE from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens DC-4 by 5 and 39 amino acids, respectively.     

Expression of the outer membrane protein P.69 ofBordetella pertussis inBacillus subtilis

Summary The gene coding forBordetella pertussis P.69 protein was cloned and expressed inBacillus subtilis. The expression vector contained the promoter region and the sequence coding for the whole or truncated signal sequence of the -amylase gene fromB. amyloliquefaciens. Using either construction the level of expression was relatively low and the protein was found in the particulate fraction. The protein migrated in gel electrophoresis slower than expected from its deduced amino acid content thereby giving the appearance of having an anomalously large molecular mass.