• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.430-434
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• 2004

Three extracellular protease-deficient Bacillus subtilis strains were transformed with the plasmid pCK98 containing the endo-$\beta$-1,4-glucanase (Eng) gene of B. subtilis BSE616. The three transformants, B. subtilis DB104 (pCK98), WB600 (pCK98) and WB700 (pCK98), produced the same high level of enzyme activity and showed similar patterns of cell growth and enzyme production. When B. subtilis DB 104 (pCK98), a two-extracellular protease deficient strain, was cultured for 22 h, almost all the secreted enzyme was found to be in the completely cleaved form by both activity staining and Western blotting studies. B. subtilis WB600 (pCK98), a six-extracellular protease-deficient strain, produced a partially cleaved form in addition to the intact form of the enzyme, although the degree of internal cleavage of the enzyme was greatly reduced. With B. subtilis WB700 (pCK98), a seven-extracellular protease-deficient strain, almost all the enzyme was produced as the intact uncleaved form. This study illustrates that a role of the V pr protease is to degrade foreign proteins produced in B. subtilis and WB700 is a suitable expression system for producing the intact form of the Eng and other foreign proteins that may lose at least part of their efficacy due to internal proteolytic cleavage.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.113-121
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• 2010

Bacillus subtilis PhoP-PhoR two-component system (TCS) senses phosphate deficiency conditions, and then controls expression of the Pho regulon to prolong survival. The sensor histidine kinase, PhoR, is autophosphorylated and transfers the phosphate to the response regulator, PhoP. Phosphorylated PhoP (PhoP~P) binds to repeated 6-bp consensus PhoP binding sequences of Pho regulon promoters and activates or represses gene expression. Pho signal transduction systems are part of interconnected signal transduction network involving at least three TCSs (PhoP-PhoR, ResD-ResE TCS, SpoOA phosphorelay), a global carbon metabolism regulator (CcpA), and transition state regulators (AbrB, ScoC). In addition, PhoP-PhoR TCS is cross related with YycF-YycG TCS by cross-regulation. While indescribable progress has been made in understanding phosphate deficiency stress response through refined expression of the Pho regulon in the recent past years, many important questions still remain. Solving these questions may provide important information for application study using B. subtilis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.833-839
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• 2021

Bacillus subtilis CH3-5 isolated from cheonggukjang secretes a 28 kDa protease with a strong fibrinolytic activity. Its gene, aprE3-5, was cloned and expressed in a heterologous host (Jeong et al., 2007). In this study, the promoter of aprE3-5 was replaced with other stronger promoters (P_cry3A, P₁₀, P_SG1, P_srfA) of Bacillus spp. using PCR. The constructed chimeric genes were cloned into pHY300PLK vector, and then introduced into B. subtilis WB600. The P10 promoter conferred the highest fibrinolytic activity, i.e., 1.7-fold higher than that conferred by the original promoter. Overproduction of the 28 kDa protease was confirmed using SDS-PAGE and fibrin zymography. RT-qPCR analysis showed that aprE3-5 expression was 2.0-fold higher with the P10 promoter than with the original promoter. Change of the initiation codon from GTG to ATG further increased the fibrinolytic activity. The highest aprE3-5 expression was observed when two copies of the P₁₀ promoter were placed in tandem upstream of the ATG initiation codon. The construct with P10 promoter and ATG and the construct with two copies of P10 promoter in tandem and ATG exhibited 117% and 148% higher fibrinolytic activity, respectively, than that exhibited by the construct containing P10 promoter and GTG. These results confirmed that significant overproduction of a fibrinolytic enzyme can be achieved by suitable promoter modification, and this approach may have applications in the industrial production of AprE3-5 and related fibrinolytic enzymes.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.160-164
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• 1989

A 5.7Kb EcoRI fragment containing alkaline amylase gene of Bacillus sp. AL-8 obtained in the previons experiment (10) was transformed in B. subtilis via plasmid pUB110. The enzymatic proper-ties of the amylase produced by the transformants were Identical to those of the donor strain. Thus, the alkaline amylase activity from the transformant was maximum at pH 10 and 5$0^{\circ}C$. And the enzyme was very stable over the ranges of alkaline pH. In order to determine the location of the alkaline amylase gene within the 5.7Kb DNA fragment, the fragment was subcloned in E. coli. It was found that the alkaline amylase gene was located k EcoRI fragment of 3.7Kb.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.340-345
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• 2004

To investigate the co-expression and crystallization of a fusion gene between the Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein and a foreign protein in B. thuringiensis, the expression of the Cry1Ac fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) genes in a B. thuringiensis $Cry^-B$ strain was examined. The cry1Ac gene was cloned in the B. thuringiensis-E. coli shuttle vector, pHT3101, under the control of the native cry1Ac gene promoter, while the GFP gene was inserted into the XhoI site upstream of the proteolytic cleavage site, in the middle region of the crylAc gene (pProAc-GFP). The B. thuringiensis $Cry^-B$ strain carrying pProAc-GFP (ProAc-GFP/CB) did not produce any inclusion bodies. However, the transformed strain expressed fusion protein forms although the expression level was relatively low. Furthermore, an immu­noblot analysis using GFP and Cry1Ac antibodies showed that the fusion protein was not a single spe­cies, but rather multiple forms. In addition, the N-terminal fragment of Cry1Ac and a non-fused GFP were also found in the B. thuringiensis $Cry^-B$ strain after autolysis. The sporulated cells before autolysis and the spore-crystal mixture after autolysis of ProAc-GFP/CB exhibited insecticidal activities against Plutella xylostella larvae. Accordingly, the current results suggest that a fusion crystal protein produced by the transfomant, ProAc-GFP/CB, can be functionally expressed but easily degraded in B. thuring­iensis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.131-137
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• 2001

Previous work has identified that only the catabolite responsive element A (creA; previously called cre-2) out of two potential cre sequences (cre-1: nucleotide +160 to +173 and cre-2: +173 to +186), recognized within the coding region of the xylanaseA gene (xynA) of Bacillus stearothermophilus No.236, was actually, was actually involved in the carbon catabolite repression(CCR) of xynA expression in B. subtilis. However, the level of CCR of xynA expression in the original B.stearothermophilus No.236 strain (70-fold repression). Therefore, to search for an additional cre element in the promoter region, the upstream region of the xynA gene was subcloned by chromosome walking, and as a result, another potential cre element (nucleotide -124∼-137; designated creB) was recognized in this region. The cre-like sequence revealed a high homology to the cre consensus sequence. The xylanase activity of B. subtilis MW15 bearing pWPBR14 (containing creA and creB) cultured in a medium containing xylose as the sole carbon source was about 7.7 times higher than that observed for the same culture containing glucose. B. subtilis MW15 bearing pWPBR23 (containing only creA) produced an activity about 2.4 times higher. This pattern of CCR was confirmed using derivatives of xynA::aprA fusion plasmids. Furthermore, a measurement of the amounts of the xynA transcript showed a similar pattern as that for the production of xylanase. In addition, the synthesis of xylanase in B. subtilis QB7115 [a catabolite control protein A (ccpA) mutant strain] carrying pWPBR14 was almost completely relieved from glucose repression. Together, these results lead to a conclusion that the CCR of the expression of the xynA gene is mediated by CcpA binding at creA and creB sites in B. subtilis.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.81-85
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• 2003

To verify importance of the intervening sequence between the ribosome binding site (RBS) and the initiation codon for expression of Bacillus thuringiensis $\delta$-endotoxin, the pProMu, containing SphI and NcoIsites between RBS and the initiation codon of the cry1Ac gene, and the deletion derivatives of pProMu were constructed and transformed into the B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki $Cry^{-B}$ strain. The pProMu-ΔSphIhad identical six bases of intervening sequence to pProAc though the arrangement of sequence was different. Other mutants containing pProMu had 1 or 10 or 14 bases between RBS and the initiation codon. Among deletion mutants, only ProMu-ΔSphI/CB only produced 130 kDa typical bipyramidal crystals like those seen for ProAc/CB. However, ProMu/CB, $ProMu-{\Delta}NcoI$, and ProMu-ΔSphI＋NcoIdid not produce Cry1Ac crystals. In conclusion, the results suggest that 6-base intervening sequence was important for expression of cry1-type class gene. Furthermore, spacing effect of the intervening sequences may play an important role in expression of individual crystal proteins in B. thuringiensis without doubt.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.451-456
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• 2003

An expression vector system was developed for the secretory production of recombinant Bacillus stearothermophilus L1 lipase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The mature L1 lipase gene was fused to ${\alpha}-amylase$ signal sequence from Aspergillus oryzae for the effective secretion into the culture broth and the expression was controlled under GAL10 (the gene coding UDP-galactose epimerase of S. cerevisiae) promoter. S. cerevisiae harboring the resulting plasmid successfully secreted L1 lipase into the culture broth. To examine an optimum condition for L1 lipase expression in the fed-batch culture, L1 lipase expression was induced at three different growth phases (early, mid, and late-exponential growth phases). Maximum product on of L1 lipase (1,254,000 U/l, corresponding to 0.65/1) was found when the culture was induced at an early growth phase. Secreted recombinant L1 lipase was purified only through CM-Sepharose chromatography, and the purified enzyme showed 1,963 U/mg of specific activity and thermoalkalophilic properties similar to those reported for the enzyme expressed in Escherichia coli.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.318-321
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• 2002

To induce recombinant protein under phosphate restricted conditions such as soil, we have constructed the expression vector (pEAAP) with phoA gene promoter of Enterobacter aerogenes. To construct the pEAAP, deletion of the T7 promoter and lac operator from pET-22b(+) by BglII-XhoI digestion and addition of the phoA gene promoter (containing the pho box) were performed. To test pEAAP as an expression vector controled by phosphate limitation, pEAPHY1 was constructed with the phytate gene (Bsa-phy1) of Bacillus subtillis var. amyloliquefaciens (KCTC 8913P). Under the phosphate-limitation condition, CK-PHY1 ( Escherichia coli JM109 was transformed with pEAPHY1) expressed the 41 kD Bsa-Phy1 . Also CK-PHY1 formed the clear zone in solid medium containing phytate as a sole phosphate source.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.275-280
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• 2005

Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by the gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax toxin is a tripartite toxin comprising of protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF). PA is the receptor-binding component, which facilitates the entry of LF or EF onto the cytosol. LF is a zinc-dependent metalloprotease, which is a critical virulence factor in cytotoxicity of infected animals. Therefore, it is of interest to develop its potent inhibitors for the neutralization of anthrax toxin. The first step to identify the inhibitors is the development of a rapid, sensitive, and simple assay method with a high-throughput ability. Much efforts have been concentrated on the preparation of powerful assays and on the screening of inhibitors using these system. In the present study, we have tried to construct anthrax lethal factor in yeast expression system to prepare cell-based high-throughput assay system. Here, we have shown the results covering the construction of a new vector system, subcloning of LF gene, and the expression of target gene. Our results are first trial to express LF gene in eukaryote and provide the basic steps in design of cell-based assay system.