Overexpression of sprA and sprB Genes is Tightly Regulated in Streptomyces griseus

The sprA and sprB genes, encoding the chymotrypsin-like proteases Streptomyces griseus protease A (SGPA) and Streptomyces griseus protease B (SGPB), and the sprT gene that encodes Streptomyces griseus trypsin (SGT) were cloned from S. griseus and were overexpressed in various strains of S. griseus. When the sprT gene was introduced into S. griseus, trypsin activity increased 2-fold in the A-factor deficient mutant strain, S. griseus HH1, and increased 4-fold in the wild strain, S. grise us IFO 13350. However, there was no detectable increase of chymotrypsin activity in the transformants of S. griseus with either sprA or sprB, in contrast to the results obtained from S. lividans as a heterologous host. To solve the negative gene dosage effects in S. griseus, either the sprA or the sprB genes with their own ribosome binding sites were linked to the downstream of the entire sprT gene, and the coexpression efficiency was examined in S. lividans and S. griseus. The transformants of S. lividans with either pWHM3-TA (sprT+sprA) or pWHM3­TB (sprT+sprB) showed 3-fold increase of trypsin activity over that of the control, however, only the transformant of pWHM3-TB demonstrated 7-fold increase in chymotrypsin activity, indicating that the pWHM3-TB has a successful construction for the overexpression of chymotrypsin in Streptomyces. When the coexpression vectors were introduced into S. griseus IFO 13350, the trypsin level sharply increased by more than 4-fold, however, the chymotrypsin level did not increase. These results strongly suggest that the overexpression of the sprA and sprB genes is tightly regulated in S. griseus.