Abstract
In the search of new enzymatic activities with a possible industrial application, we focused on those microorganisms and their molecular mechanisms that allow them to succeed in the environment, particularly in the proteolytic activity and its central role in the microorganisms’ successful permanence. The use of highly active serine proteases for industrial applications is a modern need, especially for the formulation of detergents, protein processing, and hair removal from animal skins. This report provides the isolation and identification of a highly proteolytic fragment derived from DegQ produced by a Pseudomonas fluorescens environmental strain isolated from a frog carcass. Zymograms demonstrate that a 10 kDa protein mainly generates the total proteolytic activity of this strain, which is enhanced by the detergent SDS. Mass spectroscopy analysis revealed that the protein derived a couple of peptides, the ones showing the highest coverage belonging to DegQ. Interestingly, this small protein fragment contains a PDZ domain but no obvious residues indicating that it is a protease. Protein model analysis shows that this fragment corresponds to the main PDZ domain from DegQ, and its unique sequence and structure render a proteolytic peptide. The results presented here indicate that a novel DegQ fragment is sufficient for obtaining high protease activity highlighting that the analysis of environmental microorganisms can render new strains or enzymes with helpful biotechnological characteristics.
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Data availability
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author. FVG UGTO strain is available upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This research was carried out with funding from CONACyT (CB 2016-286709). The authors thank Juan Ignacio Macías-Segoviano for technical support.
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FV-G: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation. BF: conceptualization, formal analysis, resources, writing—original draft. NV-M: formal analysis, visualization, writing—review & editing. MV-G: methodology, validation. VO-M: conceptualization, supervision, project administration, writing—review & editing and funding acquisition.
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Vargas-Gasca, F., Franco, B., Vargas-Maya, N.I. et al. Pseudomonas environmental strain produces a DegQ-derived and PDZ domain containing peptide with protease activity. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 117, 41 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-024-01939-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-024-01939-z