Diversity of both the cultivable protease-producing bacteria and their extracellular proteases in the sediments of the South China sea.
Protease-producing bacteria are known to play an important role in degrading sedimentary particular organic nitrogen, and yet, their diversity and extracellular proteases remain largely unknown. In this paper, the diversity of the cultivable protease-producing bacteria and their extracellular proteases in the sediments of the South China Sea was investigated. The richness of the cultivable protease-producing bacteria reached 10(6) cells/g in all sediment samples. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the predominant cultivated protease-producing bacteria are Gammaproteobacteria affiliated with the genera Pseudoalteromonas, Alteromonas, Marinobacter, Idiomarina, Halomonas, Vibrio, Shewanella, Pseudomonas, and Rheinheimera, with Alteromonas (34.6%) and Pseudoalteromonas (28.2%) as the predominant groups. Inhibitor analysis showed that nearly all the extracellular proteases from the bacteria are serine proteases or metalloproteases. Moreover, these proteases have different hydrolytic ability to different proteins, reflecting they may belong to different kinds of serine proteases or metalloproteases. To our knowledge, this study represents the first report of the diversity of bacterial proteases in deep-sea sediments.
Zhou
Ming-Yang
MY
State Key Lab of Microbial Technology, Marine Biotechnology Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, People's Republic of China.
Chen
Xiu-Lan
XL
Zhao
Hui-Lin
HL
Dang
Hong-Yue
HY
Luan
Xi-Wu
XW
Zhang
Xi-Ying
XY
He
Hai-Lun
HL
Zhou
Bai-Cheng
BC
Zhang
Yu-Zhong
YZ
D044822:Biodiversity; D002681:China; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D020563:Gammaproteobacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology*; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014871:Water Microbiology
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases