• DOI:10.1007/s007920100224
• Corpus ID: 23951029

A novel species of alkaliphilic Bacillus that produces an oxidatively stable alkaline serine protease

@article{Saeki2001ANS,
  title={A novel species of alkaliphilic Bacillus that produces an oxidatively stable alkaline serine protease},
  author={Katsuhisa Saeki and Jun Hitomi and Mitsuyoshi Okuda and Yuji Hatada and Yasushi Kageyama and Mikio Takaiwa and Hiromi Kubota and Hiroshi Hagihara and Tohru Kobayashi and Shuji Kawai and Susumu Ito},
  journal={Extremophiles},
  year={2001},
  volume={6},
  pages={65-72}
}

• K. Saeki, J. Hitomi, +8 authors S. Ito
• Published 1 February 2002
• Biology, Chemistry
• Extremophiles

Abstract. A novel gram-positive, strictly aerobic, motile, sporulating, and facultatively alkaliphilic bacterium designated KSM-KP43 was isolated from a sample of soil. The results of 16S rRNA sequence analysis placed this bacterium in a cluster with Bacillus halmapalus. However, the level of the DNA–DNA hybridization of KSM-KP43 with B. halmapalus was less than 25%. Moreover, the G+C contents of the genomic DNA were 41.6 mol% for KSM-KP43 and 38.6 mol% for B. halmapalus. Because there were also differences in physiological properties and cellular fatty acid composition between the two organisms, we propose KSM-KP43 as a novel species of alkaliphilic Bacillus. This novel strain produces a new class of protease, an oxidatively stable serine protease that is suitable for use in bleach-based detergents. The enzyme contained 640 amino acid residues, including a possible ~200-amino-acid prepropeptide in the N-terminal and a unique stretch of ~160 amino acids in the C-terminal regions (434-amino-acid mature enzyme with a calculated molecular mass of 45,301 Da). The C-terminal half after the putative catalytic Ser255 and the contiguous C-terminal extension shared local similarity to internal segments of a membrane-associated serine protease of a marine microbial assemblage and the serine protease/ABC transporter precursors of the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, and to the C-terminal half of a cold-active alkaline serine protease of a psychrotrophic Shewanella strain.