J. Bacteriol., 09 1996, 5330-5332, Vol 178, No. 17
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology

A germination-specific spore cortex-lytic enzyme from Bacillus cereus spores: cloning and sequencing of the gene and molecular characterization of the enzyme

R Moriyama, S Kudoh, S Miyata, S Nonobe, A Hattori and S Makino
Department of Applied Biological Sciences, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Japan.

A gene (sleB) encoding a 24-kDa germination-specific spore cortex-lytic enzyme, probably an N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanine amidase, was cloned from Bacillus cereus, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. It was indicated that the enzyme is produced as a 259-residue protein with a signal sequence of 32 residues and is present in dormant spores in its active form. Sulfhydryl reagents inactivated the enzyme, but mutation of a single cysteine of the protein, Cys-258, to Gly did not cause complete inactivation of the enzyme, suggesting that the residue does not function as the catalytic center of enzyme.

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