We have developed novel nucleic acid probes that recognize and report the presence of specific nucleic acids in homogeneous solutions. These probes undergo a spontaneous fluorogenic conformational change when they hybridize to their targets. Only perfectly complementary targets elicit this response, as hybridization does not occur when the target contains a mismatched nucleotide or a deletion. The probes are particularly suited for monitoring the synthesis of specific nucleic acids in real time. When used in nucleic acid amplification assays, gene detection is homogeneous and sensitive, and can be carried out in a sealed tube. When introduced into living cells, these probes should enable the origin, movement, and fate of specific mRNAs to be traced.

Molecular Beacons: Probes that Fluoresce upon Hybridization

Proteases represent the class of enzymes which occupy a pivotal position with respect to their physiological roles as well as their commercial applications. They perform both degradative and synthetic functions. Since they are physiologically necessary for living organisms, proteases occur ubiquitously in a wide diversity of sources such as plants, animals, and microorganisms. Microbes are an attractive source of proteases owing to the limited space required for their cultivation and their ready susceptibility to genetic manipulation. Proteases are divided into exo- and endopeptidases based on their action at or away from the termini, respectively. They are also classified as serine proteases, aspartic proteases, cysteine proteases, and metalloproteases depending on the nature of the functional group at the active site. Proteases play a critical role in many physiological and pathophysiological processes. Based on their classification, four different types of catalytic mechanisms are operative. Proteases find extensive applications in the food and dairy industries. Alkaline proteases hold a great potential for application in the detergent and leather industries due to the increasing trend to develop environmentally friendly technologies. There is a renaissance of interest in using proteolytic enzymes as targets for developing therapeutic agents. Protease genes from several bacteria, fungi, and viruses have been cloned and sequenced with the prime aims of (i) overproduction of the enzyme by gene amplification, (ii) delineation of the role of the enzyme in pathogenecity, and (iii) alteration in enzyme properties to suit its commercial application. Protein engineering techniques have been exploited to obtain proteases which show unique specificity and/or enhanced stability at high temperature or pH or in the presence of detergents and to understand the structure-function relationships of the enzyme. Protein sequences of acidic, alkaline, and neutral proteases from diverse origins have been analyzed with the aim of studying their evolutionary relationships. Despite the extensive research on several aspects of proteases, there is a paucity of knowledge about the roles that govern the diverse specificity of these enzymes. Deciphering these secrets would enable us to exploit proteases for their applications in biotechnology.

Molecular and Biotechnological Aspects of Microbial Proteases

Proteolytic enzymes are ubiquitous in occurrence, being found in all living organisms, and are essential for cell growth and differentiation. The extracellular proteases are of commercial value and find multiple applications in various industrial sectors. Although there are many microbial sources available for producing proteases, only a few are recognized as commercial producers. A good number of bacterial alkaline proteases are commercially available, such as subtilisin Carlsberg, subtilisin BPN′ and Savinase, with their major application as detergent enzymes. However, mutations have led to newer protease preparations with improved catalytic efficiency and better stability towards temperature, oxidizing agents and changing wash conditions. Many newer preparations, such as Durazym, Maxapem and Purafect, have been produced, using techniques of site-directed mutagenesis and/or random mutagenesis. Directed evolution has also paved the way to a great variety of subtilisin variants with better specificities and stability. Molecular imprinting through conditional lyophilization is coming up to match molecular approaches in protein engineering. There are many possibilities for modifying biocatalysts through molecular approaches. However, the search for microbial sources of novel alkaline proteases in natural diversity through the "metagenome" approach is targeting a hitherto undiscovered wealth of molecular diversity. This fascinating development will allow the biotechnological exploitation of uncultured microorganisms, which by far outnumber the species accessible by cultivation, regardless of the habitat. In this review, we discuss the types and sources of proteases, protease yield-improvement methods, the use of new methods for developing novel proteases and applications of alkaline proteases in industrial sectors, with an overview on the use of alkaline proteases in the detergent industry.

Bacterial alkaline proteases: molecular approaches and industrial applications

The integrity of cell membranes is maintained by a balance between the amount of cholesterol and the amounts of unsaturated and saturated fatty acids in phospholipids. This balance is maintained by membrane-bound transcription factors called sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) that activate genes encoding enzymes of cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis. To enhance transcription, the active NH2-terminal domains of SREBPs are released from endoplasmic reticulum membranes by two sequential cleavages. The first is catalyzed by Site-1 protease (S1P), a membrane-bound subtilisin-related serine protease that cleaves the hydrophilic loop of SREBP that projects into the endoplasmic reticulum lumen. The second cleavage, at Site-2, requires the action of S2P, a hydrophobic protein that appears to be a zinc metalloprotease. This cleavage is unusual because it occurs within a membrane-spanning domain of SREBP. Sterols block SREBP processing by inhibiting S1P. This response is mediated by SREBP cleavage-activating protein (SCAP), a regulatory protein that activates S1P and also serves as a sterol sensor, losing its activity when sterols overaccumulate in cells. These regulated proteolytic cleavage reactions are ultimately responsible for controlling the level of cholesterol in membranes, cells, and blood.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/96/20/11041.full.pdf

A proteolytic pathway that controls the cholesterol content of membranes, cells, and blood

▪ Abstract Bacteria produce and secrete lipases, which can catalyze both the hydrolysis and the synthesis of long-chain acylglycerols. These reactions usually proceed with high regioselectivity and enantioselectivity, and, therefore, lipases have become very important stereoselective biocatalysts used in organic chemistry. High-level production of these biocatalysts requires the understanding of the mechanisms underlying gene expression, folding, and secretion. Transcription of lipase genes may be regulated by quorum sensing and two-component systems; secretion can proceed either via the Sec-dependent general secretory pathway or via ABC transporters. In addition, some lipases need folding catalysts such as the lipase-specific foldases and disulfide-bond–forming proteins to achieve a secretion-competent conformation. Three-dimensional structures of bacterial lipases were solved to understand the catalytic mechanism of lipase reactions. Structural characteristics include an α/β hydrolase fold, a catalytic ...

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Bacterial Biocatalysts: Molecular Biology, Three-Dimensional Structures, and Biotechnological Applications of Lipases

Carboxypeptidases are proteolytic enzymes which only cleave the C-terminal peptide bond in polypeptides. Those characterized until now can, dependent on their catalytic mechanism, be classified as either metallo carboxypeptidases or as serine carboxypeptidases. Enzymes from the latter group are found in the vacuoles of higher plants and fungi and in the lysosomes of animal cells. Many fungi, in addition, excrete serine carboxypeptidases. Apparently, bacteria do not employ this group of enzymes.

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Serine carboxypeptidases. A review

A solid-phase assay for the complete subsite mapping of the active site of endoproteases has been developed. A library of resin-bound protease substrates was synthesized both on kieselguhr-supported polyamide resin and on a polyethylene glycol-poly-(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) copolymer type of resin that allows proteases to diffuse into the interior and perform their catalytic activity. Anthranilic acid and 3-nitrotyrosine were used as an efficient donor-acceptor pair for the resonance energy transfer. The synthesis was performed in a manual library generator that allows simple wet mixing of the beads and parallel washing procedures. After treatment with subtilisin Carlsberg, fluorescing beads were collected and subjected to peptide sequencing, affording the preferred sequences, their cleavage bond, and a semiquantitative estimation of the turnover. A statistical distribution of preferred amino acids was obtained for each subsite. The result was compared with data from kinetic studies in solution.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/91/8/3314.full.pdf

Portion-mixing peptide libraries of quenched fluorogenic substrates for complete subsite mapping of endoprotease specificity.

Anthranilamide and nitrotyrosine as a donor-acceptor pair in internally quenched fluorescent substrates for endopeptidases: multicolumn peptide synthesis of enzyme substrates for subtilisin Carlsberg and pepsin.

Subtilisins are serine endopeptidases with an extended binding cleft comprising at least eight binding subsites. Interestingly, subsites distant from the scissile bond play a dominant role in determining the specificity of the enzymes. The development of internally quenched fluorogenic substrates, which allow polypeptides of more than 11 amino acids to be inserted between the donor and the acceptor, has rendered it possible to perform a highly systematic mapping of the individual subsites of the active sites of subtilisin BPN' from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Savinase from Bacillus lentus. For each enzyme, the eight positions S5-S'3 were characterized by determination of kcat/KM values for the hydrolysis of substrates in which the amino acids were systematically varied. The results emphasize that in both subtilisin BPN' and Savinase interactions between substrate and S4 and S1 are very important. However, it is apparent that interactions between other subsites and the substrate exert a significant influence on the substrate preference. The results are rationalized on the basis of the structural data available for the two enzymes.

Extensive comparison of the substrate preferences of two subtilisins as determined with peptide substrates which are based on the principle of intramolecular quenching.

The structure of monomeric serine carboxypeptidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (CPD-Y), deglycosylated by an efficient new procedure, has been determined by multiple isomorphous replacement and crystallographic refinement. The model contains 3333 non-hydrogen atoms, all 421 amino acids, 3 of 4 carbohydrate residues, 5 disulfide bridges, and 38 water molecules. The standard crystallographic R-factor is 0.162 for 10,909 reflections observed between 20.0- and 2.8-A resolution. The model has rms deviations from ideality of 0.016 A for bond lengths and 2.7 degrees for bond angles and from restrained thermal parameters of 7.9 A2. CPD-Y, which exhibits a preference for hydrophobic peptides, is distantly related to dimeric wheat serine carboxypeptidase II (CPD-WII), which has a preference for basic peptides. Comparison of the two structures suggests that substitution of hydrophobic residues in CPD-Y for negatively charged residues in CPD-WII in the binding site is largely responsible for this difference. Catalytic residues are in essentially identical configurations in the two molecules, including strained main-chain conformational angles for three active site residues (Ser 146, Gly 52, and Gly 53) and an unusual hydrogen bond between the carboxyl groups of Glu 145 and Glu 65. The binding of an inhibitor, benzylsuccinic acid, suggests that the C-terminal carboxylate binding site for peptide substrates is Asn 51, Gly 52, Glu 145, and His 397 and that the "oxyanion hole" consists of the amides of Gly 53 and Tyr 147. A surprising result of the study is that the domains consisting of residues 180-317, which form a largely alpha-helical insertion into the highly conserved cores surrounding the active site, are quite different structurally in the two molecules. It is suggested that these domains have evolved much more rapidly than other parts of the molecule and are involved in substrate recognition.

Klaus Breddam

Papers

Serine carboxypeptidases. A review

Portion-mixing peptide libraries of quenched fluorogenic substrates for complete subsite mapping of endoprotease specificity.

Anthranilamide and nitrotyrosine as a donor-acceptor pair in internally quenched fluorescent substrates for endopeptidases: multicolumn peptide synthesis of enzyme substrates for subtilisin Carlsberg and pepsin.

Extensive comparison of the substrate preferences of two subtilisins as determined with peptide substrates which are based on the principle of intramolecular quenching.

2.8-A structure of yeast serine carboxypeptidase.