title: A novel species of alkaliphilic Bacillus that produces an oxidatively stable alkaline serine protease.
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 approximately 200-amino-acid prepropeptide in the N-terminal and a unique stretch of approximately 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.
authors.affiliation: Tochigi Research Laboratories of Kao Corporation, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saeki
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hitomi
authors.forename: Mitsuyoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hatada
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kageyama
authors.forename: Mikio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takaiwa
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hagihara
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001407:Bacillus / Q000145:classification* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000235:genetics*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases