Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1983 Nov 25;11(22):7911–7925. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.22.7911

Cloning, sequencing, and secretion of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subtilisin in Bacillus subtilis.

J A Wells, E Ferrari, D J Henner, D A Estell, E Y Chen
PMCID: PMC326549  PMID: 6316278

Abstract

The subtilisin gene from B. amyloliquefaciens has been cloned and expressed under its own promoter on a high copy plasmid, pBS42, in Bacillus subtilis I-168 (Marburg strain). Greater than 95 percent of the expressed protease activity is secreted, and the activity is sensitive to inhibition by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride as expected for subtilisin. Bacillus subtilis transformants carrying the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subtilisin gene in pBS42 (called pS4) secreted large amounts of a protein not seen in control pBS42 transformants. This protein migrated in SDS gels near the position of authentic subtilisin. The complete nucleotide sequence of the cloned gene has been determined using dideoxy sequencing methods. Ba131 exonuclease digestion studies at the 5' end of the gene have defined a 31 base pair stretch necessary for efficient expression of subtilisin. In addition to this putative promoter region, sequences have been assigned for ribosome binding, translation initiation, a signal peptide, the mature enzyme, and translation and transcription termination. A most interesting feature of the gene is a sequence of unknown function coding for roughly 75 amino acids between the signal sequence and the mature enzyme. It is proposed that this region serve as a pro-peptide as is commonly found in eukaryotic secreted proteases.

Full text

PDF
7911

Images in this article

7916Image
on p.7916
7918Image
on p.7918

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alden R. A., Wright C. S., Kraut J. A hydrogen-bond network at the active site of subtilisin BPN'. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1970 Feb 12;257(813):119–124. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1970.0014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Anagnostopoulos C., Spizizen J. REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSFORMATION IN BACILLUS SUBTILIS. J Bacteriol. 1961 May;81(5):741–746. doi: 10.1128/jb.81.5.741-746.1961. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Blobel G., Walter P., Chang C. N., Goldman B. M., Erickson A. H., Lingappa V. R. Translocation of proteins across membranes: the signal hypothesis and beyond. Symp Soc Exp Biol. 1979;33:9–36. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Crea R., Horn T. Synthesis of oligonucleotides on cellulose by a phosphotriester method. Nucleic Acids Res. 1980 May 24;8(10):2331–2348. doi: 10.1093/nar/8.10.2331. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Drenth J., Hol W. G., Jansonius J. N., Koekoek R. Subtilisin Novo. The three-dimensional structure and its comparison with subtilisin BPN'. Eur J Biochem. 1972 Mar 27;26(2):177–181. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1972.tb01754.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Foltmann B., Pedersen V. B., Jacobsen H., Kauffman D., Wybrandt G. The complete amino acid sequence of prochymosin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Jun;74(6):2321–2324. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.6.2321. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gold L., Pribnow D., Schneider T., Shinedling S., Singer B. S., Stormo G. Translational initiation in prokaryotes. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1981;35:365–403. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.35.100181.002053. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Grunstein M., Hogness D. S. Colony hybridization: a method for the isolation of cloned DNAs that contain a specific gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Oct;72(10):3961–3965. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.10.3961. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Johnson W. C., Moran C. P., Jr, Losick R. Two RNA polymerase sigma factors from Bacillus subtilis discriminate between overlapping promoters for a developmentally regulated gene. Nature. 1983 Apr 28;302(5911):800–804. doi: 10.1038/302800a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Kreil G. Transfer of proteins across membranes. Annu Rev Biochem. 1981;50:317–348. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.50.070181.001533. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Losick R., Pero J. Cascades of Sigma factors. Cell. 1981 Sep;25(3):582–584. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90164-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Markland F. S., Smith E. L. Subtilisin BPN. VII. Isolation of cyanogen bromide peptides and the complete amino acid sequence. J Biol Chem. 1967 Nov 25;242(22):5198–5211. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Messing J., Crea R., Seeburg P. H. A system for shotgun DNA sequencing. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Jan 24;9(2):309–321. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.2.309. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Messing J., Vieira J. A new pair of M13 vectors for selecting either DNA strand of double-digest restriction fragments. Gene. 1982 Oct;19(3):269–276. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90016-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Michel J. F., Millet J. Physiological studies on early-blocked sporulation mutants of Bacillus subtilis. J Appl Bacteriol. 1970 Mar;33(1):220–227. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1970.tb05246.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Montville T. J. Dual-substrate plate diffusion assay for proteases. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1983 Jan;45(1):200–204. doi: 10.1128/aem.45.1.200-204.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Moran C. P., Jr, Lang N., Banner C. D., Haldenwang W. G., Losick R. Promoter for a developmentally regulated gene in Bacillus subtilis. Cell. 1981 Sep;25(3):783–791. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90186-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Palva I., Pettersson R. F., Kalkkinen N., Lehtovaara P., Sarvas M., Söderlund H., Takkinen K., Käriäinen L. Nucleotide sequence of the promoter and NH2-terminal signal peptide region of the alpha-amylase gene from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. Gene. 1981 Oct;15(1):43–51. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(81)90103-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Poncz M., Solowiejczyk D., Ballantine M., Schwartz E., Surrey S. "Nonrandom" DNA sequence analysis in bacteriophage M13 by the dideoxy chain-termination method. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1982 Jul;79(14):4298–4302. doi: 10.1073/pnas.79.14.4298. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Reysset G., Millet J. Characterization of an intracellular protease in B. subtillus during sporulation. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1972 Oct 17;49(2):328–334. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(72)90414-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Spizizen J. TRANSFORMATION OF BIOCHEMICALLY DEFICIENT STRAINS OF BACILLUS SUBTILIS BY DEOXYRIBONUCLEATE. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1958 Oct 15;44(10):1072–1078. doi: 10.1073/pnas.44.10.1072. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Strongin A. Y., Izotova L. S., Abramov Z. T., Gorodetsky D. I., Ermakova L. M., Baratova L. A., Belyanova L. P., Stepanov V. M. Intracellular serine protease of Bacillus subtilis: sequence homology with extracellular subtilisins. J Bacteriol. 1978 Mar;133(3):1401–1411. doi: 10.1128/jb.133.3.1401-1411.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Wright C. S., Alden R. A., Kraut J. Structure of subtilisin BPN' at 2.5 angström resolution. Nature. 1969 Jan 18;221(5177):235–242. doi: 10.1038/221235a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Yang M., Galizzi A., Henner D. Nucleotide sequence of the amylase gene from Bacillus subtilis. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983 Jan 25;11(2):237–249. doi: 10.1093/nar/11.2.237. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES