Diversity of both the cultivable protease-producing bacteria and bacterial extracellular proteases in the coastal sediments of King George Island, Antarctica.
Protease-producing bacteria play a vital role in degrading sedimentary organic nitrogen. However, the diversity of these bacteria and their extracellular proteases in most regions remain unknown. In this paper, the diversity of the cultivable protease-producing bacteria and of bacterial extracellular proteases in the sediments of Maxwell Bay, King George Island, Antarctica was investigated. The cultivable protease-producing bacteria reached 10(5) cells/g in all 8 sediment samples. The cultivated protease-producing bacteria were mainly affiliated with the phyla Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria, and the predominant genera were Bacillus (22.9%), Flavobacterium (21.0%) and Lacinutrix (16.2%). Among these strains, Pseudoalteromonas and Flavobacteria showed relatively high protease production. Inhibitor analysis showed that nearly all the extracellular proteases from the bacteria were serine proteases or metalloproteases. These results begin to address the diversity of protease-producing bacteria and bacterial extracellular proteases in the sediments of the Antarctic Sea.
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Jinan, China ; Marine Biotechnology Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Ming-Yang
MY
Zhou
Guang-Long
GL
Wang
Dan
D
Li
Dian-Li
DL
Zhao
Qi-Long
QL
Qin
Xiu-Lan
XL
Chen
Bo
B
Chen
Bai-Cheng
BC
Zhou
Xi-Ying
XY
Zhang
Yu-Zhong
YZ
Zhang
D000864:Antarctic Regions; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D044822:Biodiversity; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000201:enzymology*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000382:microbiology*; D062312:Islands; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D010447:Peptide Hydrolases