Abstract

The alkalophilic bacterium, Xanthomonas sp. JK311, producing extracellular proteases, was isolated from soil. Xanthomonas sp. JK311 produced five extracellular proteases that are all metalloproteases. Four of them were resistant against 1% SDS. Chromosomal DNA of the Xanthomonas sp. JK311 was digested with BamHI and cloned into PUC19. Among E. coli strain HB101 transformants, a clone secreting the proteases was screened through halo formation on skim-milk agar plate and by Southern blot analysis. It had the recombinant plasmid pXEP-1 containing the 7.5 kb-BamHI DNA fragment and produced three extacellular proteases. Their protease properties corresponded to those of Xanthomonas sp. JK311.

• Keywords: Xanthomonas sp. JK311; alkaline proteases; SDS-resistance; protease gene cloning