• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1537-1543
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• 2006

A bacterial strain named HY-3 that produces a highly active extracellular protease was isolated from the digestive tract of a spider, Nephila clavata. The bacterium was a Gram-negative, oxidase-negative, catalase-positive, nonhalophilic, nitrate-reducing, facultative anaerobe. Transmission and scanning electron microscopies demonstrated that the isolate was non-spare-forming, straight, rod-shaped, and motile by peritrichous flagella. The G+C content of the DNA was 57.0 mol%. The isoprenoid quinone type was ubiquinone with 8 isoprene units (Q-8). The morphological and biochemical characteristics including the predominant fatty acid and phospholipids profiles placed the isolate HY-3 in the family Enterobacteriaceae. Further biochemical characterization and phylogenetic studies including determination of an almost complete 16S ribosomal DNA sequence suggested that the bacterium was closely related to the genus Serratia. DNA-DNA hybridization analysis revealed that this extracellular protease-producing strain belongs to Serratia proteamaculans, which is also known far its association with insects.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 1999

For the selection of an effective antagonistic biocontrol agent, we have isolated an antagonistic bacterium which produced extracellular chitinase, from a local soil of Kyongju, Korea. The selected strain was identified as Serratia proteamaculans 3095. The chitinase produced from Serratia sp. 3095 showed antifungal activity which can attack the hypha surface of Fusarium oxysporum and F. solani. The carbon and nitrogen sources for chitinase production were 0.15% colloidal chitin and 0.1% ammonium sulfate, respectively. Glucose in the chitinase production medium might inhibit the production of chitinase by feed back repression. The antagonistic Serratia sp. 3095 also showed a powerful biocontrol activity against F. oxysporum through in vitro test and in vivo pot test.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.269-274
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• 2004

Serratia proteamaculans isolated from the midgut of a spider formed big halos around the bacterial colonies, indicating that the bacterial strain produces an extracellular protease. Activity staining of the extracellular pro­tein fractions using zymogram also demonstrated that the major protein with an estimated molecular mass of 52 kDa contained a high proteolytic activity. The protease was purified to near electrophoretic homogeneity from the culture supernatant after filtration and ion exchange and size exclusion chromatography. The purified enzyme had a relatively high proteolytic activity between pH 6.0 and 10.0 and at broad temperature range. The proteolytic activity of the enzyme was not inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride but strongly inhibited by 1, 10-phenanthroline and EDTA. The activity also was dependent on the presence of $Ca^{++}\;and\;Zn^{++}$ ions. These observations indicate that the enzyme is a metalloprotease.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.761-768
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• 2007

Serratia proteamaculans HY-3 isolated from the digestive tract of a spider produces an extracellular protease named arazyme, with an estimated molecular mass of 51.5 kDa. The purified enzyme was characterized as having high activities at wide pH and temperature ranges. We further characterized biochemical features of the enzymatic reactions under various reaction conditions. The protease efficiently hydrolyzed a broad range of protein substrates including albumin, keratin, and collagen. The dependence of enzymatic activities on the presence of metal ions such as calcium and zinc indicated that the enzyme is a metalloprotease, together with the previous observation that the proteolytic activity of the enzyme was not inhibited by aspartate, cysteine, or serine protease inhibitors, but strongly inhibited by 1,10-phenanthroline and EDTA. The araA gene encoding the exoprotease was isolated as a 5.6 kb BamHI fragment after PCR amplification using degenerate primers and subsequent Southern hybridization. The nucleotide sequence revealed that the deduced amino acid sequences shared extensive similarity with those of the serralysin family of metalloproteases from other enteric bacteria. A gene(inh) encoding a putative protease inhibitor was also identified immediately adjacent to the araA structural gene.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2009

The carboxylesterase-encoding gene(bioHs) of a newly isolated strain, Serratia sp. SES-01, was cloned from the genomic DNA library by detecting formation of transparent halo around the colony on LB-tributyrin agar plates. The amino acid sequence of BioHs was highly similar to the members of the BioH enzyme family involved in the biotin biosynthetic pathway; it showed the highest similarity(91%) with that of Serratia proteamaculans. To compare BioHs with other BioH enzymes, the relatively well-known bioHe gene of E. coli was cloned with PCR. After we achieved high-level expression of soluble BioHs and BioHe through the exploration of different culture conditions, the purified BioHs and BioHe enzymes were characterized in terms of specificity, activity, and stability. BioHe was generally more robust to a change in temperature and pH and an addition of organic solvents than BioHs. The two enzymes exhibited a strong preference for carboxylesterase rather than for thioesterase and were optimal at relatively low temperatures($20-40^{\circ}C$) and alkaline pHs(7.5-9.0). The results in this study strongly suggested that both the BioHs and BioHe enzymes would be potential candidates for use as a carboxylesterase in many industrial applications.