Primary structure of Mucor miehei aspartyl protease: evidence for a zymogen intermediate.

The gene encoding the aspartyl protease of the filamentous fungus Mucor miehei has been cloned in Escherichia coli and the DNA sequenced. The deduced primary translation product contains an N-terminal region of 69 amino acid (aa) residues not present in the mature protein. By analogy to the evolutionarily related mammalian gastric aspartyl proteases it is inferred that the primary secreted product is a zymogen containing a 47-aa propeptide. This propeptide is presumably removed in the later steps of the secretion process or upon secretion into the medium. To study the effects of modifications of the protease structure on its maturation by enzyme-engineering methods, an efficient expression system was sought. In E. coli, transcription of the preproenzyme coding sequence from a bacterial promoter results primarily in the accumulation of unsecreted, enzymatically inactive polypeptides, immunologically related to the authentic protease. In Aspergillus nidulans expression of the cloned gene, probably from its own promoter, results in the secretion into the culture medium of polypeptides which, compared to the authentic protease, are similar in specific activity, but differ in the character of their asparagine-linked oligosaccharides.