• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.522-529
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• 2019

A Bacillus strain, SJ4, exhibiting strong fibrinolytic activity was isolated from saeu (shrimp, Acetes chinensis) jeotgal, a Korean traditional fermented food and was identified as B. subtilis. The B. subtilis SJ4 strain can grow at a NaCl concentration of up to 15% (w/v). The fibrinolytic activity of B. subtilis SJ4 (152.0 U/ml) cultured in Luria-Bertani (LB) broth for 48 h at 37℃ with aeration was higher than that of B. subtilis SJ4 cultured in TSB (124.5 U/ml) under same culture conditions. The major proteins in the LB culture supernatant of B. subtilis SJ4 were analyzed by SDS-PAGE, which revealed three major bands (23, 25, and 28 kDa). The band (23 kDa) with strong fibrinolytic activity, analyzed on fibrin zymogram, was observed at 60-96 h of cultivation. The aprESJ4 gene encoding the major fibrinolytic enzyme, AprESJ4, was cloned by PCR. The aprESJ4 gene sequence exhibited high similarities with the fibrinolytic gene sequences of other Bacillus species. The amino acid sequence of AprESJ4 exhibited 98.9 and 98.4% similarity with subtilisin NAT and AprE2 of B. subtilis, respectively. Hence, B. subtilis SJ4 can be a potential starter culture for jeotgal products.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1720-1728
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• 2020

We have previously characterized AprESJ4, the major fibrinolytic enzyme from Bacillus subtilis SJ4 (Yao et al., 2019). During that study, we observed a 68 kDa protein with fibrinolytic activity. In this study, we cloned the gene (vprSJ4) encoding the 68 kDa protein, a mature Vpr and minor protease secreted by Bacillus species. vprSJ4 encodes a preproenzyme consisting of 810 amino acids (aa) including signal sequence (28 aa) and prosequence (132 aa). The mature enzyme (650 aa) has a predicted molecular weight of 68,467.35. Unlike Vprs from other B. subtilis strains, VprSJ4 has 4 additional amino acids (DEFA) at the C-terminus. vprSJ4 was overexpressed in Escherichia coli. PreproVprSJ4 was localized in inclusion bodies, and subjected to in vitro renaturation and purification by an affinity column. SDS-PAGE and western blot showed that autoprocessing of preproVprSJ4 occurred and 68 kDa and smaller proteins were produced. The optimum pH and temperature of the recombinant VprSJ4 were pH 7.0 and 40℃, respectively. Kinetic parameters of recombinant VprSJ4 were measured by using an artificial substrate, N-succinyl-ala-ala-pro-phe-p-nitroanilide. Coexpression of vprSJ4 and aprESJ4 using pHY300PLK increased the fibrinolytic activity a further 117% when compared with aprESJ4 single expression using the same vector in B. subtilis WB600.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.800-807
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• 2022

Four aprE genes encoding alkaline serine proteases from B. subtilis strains were used as template genes for family gene shuffling. Shuffled genes obtained by DNase I digestion followed by consecutive primerless and regular PCR reactions were ligated with pHY300PLK, an E. coli-Bacillus shuttle vector. The ligation mixture was introduced into B. subtilis WB600 and one transformant (FSM4) showed higher fibrinolytic activity. DNA sequencing confirmed that the shuffled gene (aprEFSM4) consisted of DNA mostly originated from either aprEJS2 or aprE176 in addition to some DNA from either aprE3-5 or aprESJ4. Mature AprEFSM4 (275 amino acids) was different from mature AprEJS2 in 4 amino acids and mature AprE176 in 2 amino acids. aprEFSM4 was overexpressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) by using pET26b(+) and recombinant AprEFSM4 was purified. The optimal temperature and pH of AprEFSM4 were similar to those of parental enzymes. However, AprEFM4 showed better thermostability and fibrinogen hydrolytic activity than the parental enzymes. The results indicated that DNA shuffling could be used to improve fibrinolytic enzymes from Bacillus sp. for industrial applications.