Isolation and partial characterization of protease from Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853

Enzymatic characteristics of a protease from medically important, referent strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 were determined. According to SDS PAGE and gel filtration it was estimated that molecular mass of the purified enzyme was about 15 kDa. Other enzymatic properties were found to be: pH optimum 7.1, pH stability between pH 6.5 and pH 10; temperature optimum around 60?C while the enzyme was stable at 60?C for 30 min. The inhibition of the enzyme was observed with the metal chelators such as EDTA and 1,10- phenanthroline, suggesting that the protease is a metalloenzyme. Further more it was determined that enzyme contains one mole of zinc ion per mole of enzyme. The protease is stable in the presence of different organic solvents, which enable potential use for synthesis of peptides.