Exploration of novel serine protease do-like HtrA from acigöl

Abstract

Enzymes involved in industrial biotechnological processes take place in conditions of extremely high temperature, high pH, and high salinity or when there are organic solvents that have made it necessary to discover enzymes resistant to these conditions. Microorganisms in extreme environments adapt to varying levels of stress such as very high pH, temperature, salt, and pressure. For the last 20 years, researchers have focused especially on extreme environments for the discovery of enzymes that are resistant to extreme conditions, with the hypothesis that the enzymes of microorganisms adapted to these conditions can also work under extreme conditions. In this context, microorganisms can be isolated from their environment and their enzymes can be characterized by traditional microbiological methods. Besides this, new enzymes have been discovered by the method called 'metagenomics', which is not based on culture. Environments with high salt concentration are divided into two in terms of their ionic compositions. Many high salt concentration environments were formed by the evaporation of seawater, also called 'thalassohaline'. Their salt content is similar to seawater and the pH varies from basic to slightly acidic. Environments with high salt concentrations, called 'Athalassohaline', are completely different from seawater in terms of ionic composition. Acıgöl, which is our study area, is a lake with high salt concentration, which is included in the 'Athalassohaline' state group. In this study, samples from Acıgöl were employed. Acıgöl is located between the provincial borders of Denizli and Burdur in the Aegean Region of our country. Looking at the chemical composition of the lake, it is seen that Na+, K+, Cl−, and SO4 2− ions are dominant. The salinity of the Acıgöl changes between 5.8%-13%, pH between 7.8-8.2, and temperature varies seasonally between 8 °C and 32 °C. These changing extreme conditions force the microorganisms in the lake to cellular and enzymatic adaptation. These organisms adapted to high salt concentration are called 'Halophilic' microorganisms, meaning salt-loving. Based on this information, the main subject of the study is the discovery of enzymes of halophilic microorganisms that can be used in difficult industrial processes. The primary objective of this study is to obtain new proteases, which are of industrial importance, by function-based screening of culturable microorganisms. In line with this goal, firstly, soil samples taken from Acıgöl were diluted in Nutrient Broth and spread on nutrient agar petri dishes containing 10% NaCl and 1% skim milk, and the species containing protease activity were determined. It was determined by the transparent region around the colonies that the isolate had protease activity, resulting from the breakdown of skim milk. With this screening method, halophilic species in Acıgöl, which actively produce protease, were determined. Sixmorphologically different species were determined. Twoshowed protease activity, and the species with t huge zones were chosen for further studies. In the second part of the study, the whole genome of the determined species was sequenced with the New Generation Sequencing method (Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform), and its serine proteases and other biotechnologically potential enzymes were determined. According to the sequencing results, it was determined that the entire genome of the isolated species was 4,708.499 bp (base pair) in length, had a G+C ratio of 36.66%, and had 4536 gene-coding sequences. In addition, it was revealed that 99.81% ratio similarity to Virgibacillus marismortui species according to 16S rDNA sequence similarity. The whole-genome average nucleotide identity (ANI) value was obtained as 99.44% and digital DNA-DNA hybridization was computed as 88.8%. The average amino acid identity ratio (AAI: Average Amino acid Identity) was calculated as 98.69%. In addition to genomic analyses, the isolated species was also examined phenotypically and biochemically. It was determined that the species was gram positive (Gr+), both alkaliphilic and moderately halophilic, motile, endospore-forming, and protease-producing bacterium. The isolated strain shows optimum growth at 37 °C with salinity and pH ranging from 5-10% and 6 and 9, respectively. As a result of this polyphasic analysis, it was conclueded that the isolate was a subspecies of Virgibacillus species, and it has been brought to the literature with the name Virgibacillus sp. AGTR. All genome information is stored in the NCBI database. Accession number JAJERH000000000. The last step of the study aimed to produce by recombinantly and characterize the serine protease from a new isolate. Among the four serine proteases determined by whole genome analysis, the Serine protease Do-like HtrA with the lowest sequence similarity rate and fewer studies in the literature was selected for recombinant production. The Serine protease Do-like HtrA is a member of the Trypsin-like serine protease superfamily (Tryp_SPc Superfamily) and S1-C subfamily. HtrA (high-temperature requirement A), a periplasmic heat-shock protein, it has two different functions. While it shows molecular chaperone properties at low temperatures, it shows proteolytic activity at high temperatures. The structure of this kind of protease differs slightly from other commercial and well-studied proteases. Due to these properties, it could be used specifically in the pharmaceutical industry. For the recombinant production of Serine protease Do-like HtrA, primers that contain EcoR I and SacI restriction sites were designed to be specific to the start and end sequences of the gene of interest (targeting the 5' and 3' ends). By using the genome of the isolated Virgibacillus sp. AGTR strain as a template, the target protease gene was amplified and ligated into the pET-28-a(+)expression vector. The cloned vector was inserted into E. coli BL21, E. coli C43 (DE3), and RosettaTM 2 expression cells to determine the best expression host cell. As a result of the purification study, the RosettaTM 2 cell was selected for expression. Expression studies were performed with 0.1 mM, 0.5 mM, and, 1 mM IPTG concentrations at 30 ºC and 37 ºC for up to 6 hours. The highest level of expression was achieved with 0.1 mM IPTG in 4 hours at 30 °C. Successfully expressed protease gene was purified by the His-tag method. The estimated molecular weight of the protein was 42100 Da and the isoelectric point was 4.53 which is calculated using the ExPASy program. As a result of purification, the molecular weight of the enzyme (42.1 kDa) was compatible with the predicted value, according to SDS-PAGE and Western blot tests.