Spatial and seasonal variability of proteolytic genes and activity in an arable field

In a process of proteolysis proteins are hydrolyzed into smaller nitrogen-containing-membrane permeable products which living organisms can assimilate and metabolize.We applied culture independent methods for quantification and diversity analysis of subtilisin gene (sub) and neutral metalloprotease gene (npr) both enconding for extracellular proteases as well as 16S rRNA gene representing the size of bacterial population.