Isolation and characterization of a gene encoding a chymotrypsin-like serine protease from Streptomyces lividans 66

A gene encoding a Streptomyces lividans homologue of the chymotrypsin-like serine protease (SAM-P20) of Streptomyces albogriseolus was isolated using the Streptomyces griseus prtB gene as a hybridization probe. Nucleotide sequence analysis of a representative clone uncovered the possible presence of a sequence of 900 nucleotides encoding 300 amino acids, including a putative "prepro" region of 115 amino acids. Alignment of the predicted amino acid sequence of this putative gene with other members of the family of Streptomyces extracellular chymotrypsin-like proteases indicated a high degree of homology in all cases, especially with the SAM-P20 protease. This gene product has been identified as the second member of a potentially larger family of SAL (SAM-P20-like) proteases in S. lividans 66. Keywords: Streptomyces, protease, chymotrypsin.