title: Bacillus subtilis as cell factory for pharmaceutical proteins: a biotechnological approach to optimize the host organism.
abstract: Bacillus subtilis is a rod-shaped, Gram-positive soil bacterium that secretes numerous enzymes to degrade a variety of substrates, enabling the bacterium to survive in a continuously changing environment. These enzymes are produced commercially and this production represents about 60% of the industrial-enzyme market. Unfortunately, the secretion of heterologous proteins, originating from Gram-negative bacteria or from eukaryotes, is often severely hampered. Several bottlenecks in the B. subtilis secretion pathway, such as poor targeting to the translocase, degradation of the secretory protein, and incorrect folding, have been revealed. Nevertheless, research into the mechanisms and control of the secretion pathways will lead to improved Bacillus protein secretion systems and broaden the applications as industrial production host. This review focuses on studies that aimed at optimizing B. subtilis as cell factory for commercially interesting heterologous proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Groningen, Antonius Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Westers
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Westers
authors.forename: Wim J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Quax
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000494:pharmacology; D001709:Biotechnology; D004345:Drug Industry; D015202:Protein Engineering; D021381:Protein Transport; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins