Intracellular proteases of Bacillus stearothermophilus.

Cell-free extracts of Bacillus stearothermophilus have been shown to exhibit proteolytic activity toward casein as well as specific activity to catalyze the hydrolysis of furylacryloylglycyl-l-leucine amide, furylacryloylglycine, and carbobenzoxyl-glycine-p-nitrophenyl ester, indicating the presence of a neutral proteinase, a carboxypeptidase-like enzyme, and an alkaline proteinase. The neutral proteinase and carboxypeptidase-like activities were separated by gel filtration over Bio-Gel P-60, and both were reversibly inhibited by 1, 10-phenanthroline. The esterase activity was inhibited by diisopropylfluorophosphate, which did not affect other enzymatic activities and was insensitive to 1, 10-phenanthroline and ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid.