TABLE 1.

Protease activity in supernatants of Bacillus species^a

Strain	A450
B. anthracis Sterne	0.62
B. anthracis d2 (Δcot43)	1.60
B. anthracis d2/cot43	0.55
B. anthracis St-13	1.35
B. anthracis St-13/cot43	0.88
B. anthracis St-13/cot43P	0.40
B. cereus Tb	0.65
B. cereus T/cot43Pb	0.45
B. thuringiensisb	0.65

^aActivity was measured with succinylated casein (Pierce QuantiCleave Protease Assay Kit). Incubation was at 27°C for 30min (values still increasing at a constant rate), followed by 20 min with the colorimetric reagent. Assays were performed with 5 μl of supernatants (values with 10 μl were twice as high) from cells grown in NSM or G-tris at 37°C until 50% contained phase-white endospores. The initial volumes of the supernatants were adjusted so that all were from cells at equivalent Klett units. Values are the averages of three experiments with a standard deviation of ± 5%.

^bGrown in G-tris medium.