Streptomyces serine protease (SAM-P20): recombinant production, characterization, and interaction with endogenous protease inhibitor.

Previously, we isolated a candidate for an endogenous target enzyme(s) of the Streptomyces subtilisin inhibitor (SSI), termed SAM-P20, from a non-SSI-producing mutant strain (S. Taguchi, A. Odaka, Y. Watanabe, and H. Momose, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61:180-186, 1995). In this study, in order to investigate the detailed enzymatic properties of this protease, an overproduction system of recombinant SAM-P20 was established in Streptomyces coelicolor with the SSI gene promoter. The recombinant SAM-P20 was purified by salting out and by two successive ion-exchange chromatographies to give a homogeneous band by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Partial peptide mapping and amino acid composition analysis revealed that the recombinant SAM-P20 was identical to natural SAM-P20. From the results for substrate specificity and inhibitor sensitivity, SAM-P20 could be categorized as a chymotrypsin-like protease with an arginine-cleavable activity, i.e., a serine protease with broad substrate specificity. For proteolytic activity, the optimal pH was 10.0 and the optimal temperature was shifted from 50 to 80 degrees C by the addition of 10 mM calcium ion. The strong stoichiometric inhibition of SAM-P20 activity by SSI dimer protein occurred in a subunit molar ratio of these two proteins of about 1, and an inhibitor constant of SSI toward SAM-P20 was estimated to be 8.0 x 10(-10) M. The complex formation of SAM-P20 and SSI was monitored by analytical gel filtration, and a complex composed of two molecules of SAM-P20 and one dimer molecule of SSI was detected, in addition to a complex of one molecule of SAM-P20 bound to one dimer molecule of SSI. The reactive site of SSI toward SAM-P20 was identified as Met-73-Val-74 by sequence analysis of the modified form of SSI, which was produced by the acidification of the complex of SSI and SAM-P20. This reactive site is the same that toward an exogenous target enzyme, subtilisin BPN'.