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Involvement of propeptides in formation of catalytically active metalloproteinase from Thermoactinomyces sp.

The metalloproteinase from Thermoactinomyces sp. 27a (Mpr) represents secretory thermolysin-like metalloproteinases of the M4 family. The Thermoactinomyces enzyme is synthesized as a precursor consisting of a signal peptide, N-terminal propeptide, mature region, and C-terminal propeptide. The functional molecule lacks the signal peptide, N-terminal propeptide, and C-terminal propeptide, which indicates the processing of these regions. Until now, it remained unclear if the N-terminal propeptide is involved in the formation and functioning of Mpr, and the role of the C-terminal propeptide was also unclear. In this work, a Bacillus subtilis AJ73 strain expressing Mpr without the C-terminal propeptide- encoding region being involved has been obtained. The absence of the Mpr C-terminal propeptide had no significant effect on the formation of the functional molecule and did not interfere with the protease secretion in B. subtilis AJ73 cells. Strains producing the N-terminal propeptide, mature region, and mature region covalently bound to the N-terminal propeptide were generated from Escherichia coli BL-21(DE3) cells. Functionally active Mpr forms could be produced only in the presence of the N-terminal propeptide, either covalently bound to the mature region (in cis) or as a separate molecule (in trans). Thus, the Mpr three-dimensional structure is formed according to the propeptide-assisted mechanism with no requirement of a covalent bond between the N-terminal propeptide and mature region. Moreover, Mpr variants generated in cis and in trans differed in their specificity for certain synthetic substrates.