Abstract
Proteases secreted from bacteria into soil play a key role in the degradation of organic nitrogen, which is the first and, usually, the rate-limiting step of nitrogen cycling. However, the diversity of protease-producing bacteria and their excreted proteases in Antarctic soil have not yet been fully explored. Here we studied 20 soil samples from the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica and isolated 253 strains with protease activity. These protease-producing bacteria belonged to the phyla Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Deinococcus-Thermus. Thhe predominant genera were Arthrobacter (14.9%), Chryseobacterium (14.5%), Flavobacterium (14.5%), and Pseudomonas (14.5%). Most of these bacteria secreted serine proteases and metalloproteases. There was quite a large distribution in activity as quantified by protease and inhibition assays. Only a few strains secreted aspartic and/or cysteine proteases. Together these data provided novel insight into the diversity and mechanism of organic nitrogen degradation in Antarctic soils by various proteases, which may have potential in new biotechnological applications.
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Data availability
The 16S rRNA gene sequences that support the findings of this study have been deposited in GenBank with the accession numbers of KX911209, KX911210, and KY476402-KY476634.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 31400002, 31370104, and 21801144]; Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) Joint Fund for Young Doctors [grant numbers 2017BSH2016 and 2017BSH2017]; Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province [grant number ZR2017BH053], Youth Innovative Talents Recruitment and Cultivation Program of Shandong Higher Education, and Government Fund for Universities of Jinan City [Grant Number 2019GXRC021].
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M.Z., J.M., H.H analyzed the data; J.L., W.L., S.X performed the research; J.L., M.Z. J.K.B. wrote the paper; J.C., S.X., H.H., J.C., M.Z. acquired funding. All authors approved the final version of the paper.
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Liu, J., Liu, W., Xing, S. et al. Diversity of protease-producing bacteria in the soils of the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 114, 457–464 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-021-01533-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-021-01533-7