Molecular characterization of N-terminal pro-sequence of keratinase Ker P from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: identification of region with chaperone activity.

In silico analysis of keratinase Ker P from Pseudomonas aeruginosa revealed that its full gene of 1,497 bp constituted of a 72-bp signal sequence along with a long 520 bp pro-sequence and 905 bp core region. Position specific multiple sequence alignment of Ker P protein with other distant proteases revealed high variability within their N-terminal regions while the core protein was considerably conserved. Ker P (F1) and its four N-terminal truncations (F2-F5) lacking 72, 177, 405, 507 bp, respectively, were cloned and constitutively expressed as extracellular protein in pEZZ-18 secretory vector with Escherichia coli HB101 as the expression host. Ker P F1, Ker P F2, Ker P F3 and Ker P F4 products were active whereas no keratinolytic activity was obtained in Ker P F5. Further analysis revealed that only 187 bp pro-sequence region is required for correct folding of the protein into its active conformation and, thus, has chaperone-like activity. Further, comparative biochemical characterization revealed that the full-length keratinase Ker P F1 was catalytically more efficient than the truncated forms. Among the truncated enzymes, keratinase Ker P F4 exhibited better thermostability than Ker P F2 with a t(1/2) of >1 h at 60 °C. It also had a higher V (max) and K (m) on casein as compared with Ker P F2. However, no significant variation was observed with respect to kinetics on synthetic substrates.