Abstract
An extracellular serine protease (Ac1) with a molecular mass of 35 kDa was purified from the nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys conoides. The optimum activity of Ac1 is at pH 7.0 and 53.2°C (over 20 min). Ac1 can degrade a broad range of substrates including casein, gelatin, bovine serum albumin, collagen, and nematode cuticles. Moreover, the enzyme can immobilize the free-living nematode Panagrellus redivivus and the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, indicating Ac1 may be involved in infection against nematodes. The encoding gene of Ac1 contains one intron of 60-bp and two exons encoding a polypeptide of 411 amino acid residues. The deduced polypeptide sequence of Ac1 showed a high degree of similarity to two previously reported serine proteases PII and Mlx from other nematode-trapping fungi (81% aa sequence identity). However, three proteases Ac1, Aoz1 and Mlx showed optimum temperatures at 53.2, 45 and 65°C, respectively. Compared to PII, Ac1 appears to have a significantly higher activity against gelatin, bovine serum albumin, and non-denatured collagen. Moreover, our bioassay experiments showed that Ac1 is more effective at immobilizing P. redivivus than B. xylophilus.
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Acknowledgments
The work was funded by projects from National Natural Science Foundation of China (approved nos. 30630003 and 30660107), by the Department of Science and Technology of Yunnan Province (approval nos. 2004C0001Z, 2005NG03 and 2005NG05), by the Project of Yunnan University under granted no.2005Q008B and by the Project of Industrial Microbiology Fermentation Key Lab of Yunnan Province.
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Yang, J., Li, J., Liang, L. et al. Cloning and characterization of an extracellular serine protease from the nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys conoides . Arch Microbiol 188, 167–174 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-007-0233-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-007-0233-x