Heat stable proteinase fromPseudomonas fluorescensAH-70: purification by affinity chromatography on cyclopeptide antibiotics

A heat stable extracellular proteinase from the psychrotrophPseudomonas fluorescensAH-70 was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity by affinity chromatography on a gramicidin S–Sepharose-4B column. Bacitracin linked to Sepharose-4B was unable to retain any proteolytic activity, whereas the same antibiotic bound to AH-Sepharose-4B retained ~ 25% of the total activity. The purification procedure on the gramicidin S–Sepharose-4B column was easy to perform, fast and reproducible; it resulted in a 207-fold increase in the specific activity and a yield of 41% of the original activity. The purified enzyme was a monomer with a mol. wt of 33000. The enzyme hydrolysed whole casein and its fractions whereas no activity was observed against bovine serum albumin. The enzyme was a metalloproteinase. It was heat stable, havingD-values at 121, 135 and 150 °C of 3·8, 1·9 and 0·6 min respectively.

Methods used to investigate a possible environmental source of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare-scrofulaceum (MAIS) infection in farmed deer

Currently used methods for the culture of mycobacteria from contaminated material were found to be unsatisfactory in an investigation of a possible environmental source of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare-scrofulaceum (MAIS) infection in a New Zealand deer farm. Different combinations of established procedures were investigated using soil spiked with a laboratory strain of M. avium. The most successful combination involved mixing the soil in nutrient broth (pH 8.0) containing Tween 80, incubating at 37 degrees C for 1 h to germinate sporing contaminants, treatment for 24 h with 1% cetylpyridinium chloride, followed by washing and culture on Lowenstein-Jensen slopes and incubation at 37 degrees C and 42 degrees C in approximately 5% CO2 atmosphere. This procedure allowed good recovery of M. avium while successfully inhibiting saprophytic mycobacteria and other soil organisms, and was chosen to process the deer farm samples. No mycobacteria resembling the deer strains were found in these samples.

Heat-stable protease from Pseudomonas fluorescens T16: purification by affinity column chromatography and characterization

A heat-stable extracellular protease from Pseudomonas fluorescens T16, a psychrotroph, was purified by affinity column chromatography on a carbobenzoxy-D-phenylalanine-triethylene tetramine-Sepharose-4B column. The purified enzyme is a monomer with a molecular weight of 38,905 +/- 2,000. In an analytical ultracentrifuge, the Schlieren profile revealed a single symmetrical peak. The sedimentation coefficient was estimated to be 3.93S. Alpha-casein was the preferred substrate, with a Km of 0.05 mM. Heating crude enzyme and purified enzyme in buffer at 50, 90, and 120 degrees C resulted in a rapid initial loss of more than 50% of the initial activity followed by a gradual inactivation which exhibited first-order kinetics. The activation energy for the hydrolysis of casein was calculated to be 3.2 kcal/mol (13.4 kJ/mol).