JP2010239942A - Highly alkali protease-producing microorganism - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new microorganism economically advantageously producing alkali protease in mass by suppressing the reduction of pH under culture. <P>SOLUTION: The alkali protease-producing microorganism belonging to the genus Bacillus causes ≤20% of the pH reduction of a medium after two-days culture when culturing the microorganisms under a liquid culture condition containing 0.2 mass% of a pH regulator. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a novel alkaline protease high-producing bacterium and a method for producing the same, and a method for producing an alkaline protease using the producing bacterium.

Protease is an enzyme that is widely used in the food and fish processing industry, leather industry, textile industry, brewing industry, detergent industry, etc., but it has been used in detergents for a long time, and many alkaline proteases are currently used. Is used as an enzyme for detergents.
Furthermore, in recent years, detergents for clothing, in particular, have been made phosphorus-free or labor-saving in the amount of detergent used from the viewpoint of environmental problems. In order to enhance the detergency that is reduced due to this, alkaline protease has been added. As a result, there is an increasing demand for high-performance alkaline protease.

  By the way, in order for a protease to be effectively blended in a detergent, it is not sufficient to simply act under alkaline conditions, it is stable in a surfactant blended in the detergent, and clothing. It is required to have the ability to decompose soil, that is, excellent cleaning power.

  Under such circumstances, the present inventors have found that Bacillus sp. KSM-9865 (FERM-P18566) collected from nature has high stability against surfactants and oxidizing agents, and has high detergency. The inventors have found that an alkaline protease having a pH can be produced, and previously applied for a patent (Patent Document 1). Although this strain has made it possible to produce an excellent alkaline protease, in order to produce it more advantageously industrially, it is necessary to provide a strain with improved productivity and an efficient method for producing an alkaline protease using the same. It was desired.

JP 2003-199559 A

  The present inventors have found that the productivity of alkaline protease can be enhanced by first obtaining a mutant strain of the alkaline protease-producing bacterium. However, in industrial fermentation production of alkaline protease, a high concentration of nitrogen source and carbon source is often added to the medium, and in such a medium, pH reduction is likely to occur due to by-products of organic acids. . Since alkaline protease-producing bacteria belonging to the genus Bacillus are alkaliphilic microorganisms, it has been found that pH reduction during culture adversely affects the growth of bacteria and enzyme production. Although a decrease in the pH of the medium can be prevented to some extent by adding a pH adjuster in advance, it is desirable that the pH of the medium is not too high in consideration of other nutrient sources.

  Therefore, the present invention relates to providing a novel microorganism capable of suppressing the decrease in pH during culture and mass-producing alkaline protease in an economically advantageous manner.

  As a result of intensive studies on improving alkaline protease productivity by acquiring mutant strains, the present inventors have introduced a mutation into a bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus having the ability to produce alkaline protease, and the property of suppressing the pH drop of the medium It has been found that the growth of alkaline protease-producing bacteria and the enzyme-producing ability are maintained, and the productivity of alkaline protease is remarkably improved.

  That is, the present invention provides an alkaline protease-producing bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus, which has a pH reduction rate of 20% or less after 2 days of culture when cultured under liquid culture conditions containing 0.2% by mass of a pH adjuster. Is to provide.

  Use of the alkaline protease-producing bacterium of the present invention is extremely advantageous industrially because high production of alkaline protease useful as a detergent-containing enzyme is possible.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the alkaline protease producing ability of Bacillus sp. KSM-PH401 strain.

  When the alkaline protease-producing bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus of the present invention is cultured under liquid culture conditions containing 0.2% by mass of a pH adjusting agent, the pH reduction rate of the medium after 2 days of culture is 20% or less. The pH reduction rate of the alkaline protease-producing bacterium is preferably 0 to 20%, more preferably 0 to 15%, and particularly preferably 0 to 10% from the viewpoint of improving the productivity of alkaline protease.

The pH reduction rate of this alkaline protease-producing bacterium is calculated by the following formula (1) by measuring the medium pH before the start of culture and the medium pH after 2 days (48 hours) of culture.
pH reduction rate (%) = [(medium pH before culture start) − (medium pH after 2 days of culture)] / (medium pH before culture start) × 100 (1)

  As a pH adjuster, what is added to a normal liquid culture medium may be used, for example, sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, etc. are mentioned. Among these, it is preferable to use sodium carbonate from the viewpoint of preparing a medium within the optimum pH range for growth.

The alkaline protease-producing bacterium can be cultured by aerobic culture according to a conventional method, and it is preferable to culture with aeration or shaking. The stirring or shaking speed is preferably 150 to 250 rpm. Moreover, it is preferable to set the culture medium pH before a culture | cultivation start to 7-10 from the point of growth of a production microbe and enzyme production ability, and it is especially preferable to set it as pH 8-9. The culture temperature is 25 to 40 ° C, preferably 30 to 35 ° C.
The medium to be used is not particularly limited as long as it is a liquid medium in which Bacillus bacteria can grow. For example, there is a rich medium that can be used as a liquid medium for alkaline protease production described below.

Such an alkaline protease-producing bacterium is obtained by subjecting a bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus having an alkaline protease-producing ability to a mutation treatment, and then obtaining the mutant strain from 0 to 0.2% by mass of a pH adjusting agent. It is obtained by culturing in.
The bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus having the ability to produce alkaline protease (hereinafter referred to as “parent strain”) may be either a wild strain or a mutant strain, and has essentially the ability to produce alkaline protease or the ability to produce alkaline protease. In addition, a known artificial modification such as gene transfer may be added to a bacterium that does not have the necessary ability to produce alkaline protease. Preferred examples include Bacillus sp. KSM-9865 (FERM-P18566), and Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 (FERM-P21608) obtained by subjecting this strain to a mutation treatment. Since Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 has higher alkaline protease productivity than Bacillus sp. KSM-9865, it is preferable to use Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 as the parent strain.

  As a method for subjecting the parent strain to the mutation treatment, for example, a general method for inducing a mutation in the strain, such as a method of allowing a mutagen to act, a method of irradiating ultraviolet rays, ionizing radiation or the like can be used. Examples of the mutagen include base analogs such as 5-bromouracil and 2-aminopurine, nitrous acid, hydroxyamine, nitrosoguanidine (NTG), ethylmethanesulfonic acid, acridines and the like.

  Subsequently, the obtained mutant strain is cultured in a medium containing a pH adjuster in an amount of 0 to 0.2% by mass, is less likely to cause a decrease in the pH of the medium, grows more vigorously than the parent strain, and produces a high yield of alkaline protease. By selecting the strain, the alkaline protease producing bacterium of the present invention can be obtained.

  The content of the pH adjusting agent in the medium for selecting a pH-reduction-suppressing strain of the present invention is preferably 0 to 0.15% by mass, particularly preferably 0 to 0.1% by mass, from the viewpoint of the efficiency of obtaining a mutant strain. . At this time, the pH of the medium at the start of the culture is preferably pH 7 to 10, and particularly preferably pH 8 to 9, from the viewpoint of growth of the producing bacteria. In addition, as a pH adjuster, the same thing as the above is mentioned.

  The mutant strain may be cultured aerobically according to a conventional method, but it is preferably performed at 25 ° C. to 40 ° C., preferably 30 to 35 ° C. for 1 to 3 days, preferably 2 to 3 days.

As a medium to be used, a medium in which Bacillus bacteria can grow can be used, for example, a skim milk-containing alkaline agar medium. In addition, if necessary, nutrient sources that can be added to the medium described later may be used in appropriate combination.
Alkaline protease-producing bacteria may be selected using the proteolytic activity on the skim milk selection plate as an index.

The alkaline protease-producing bacterium thus obtained is different from the parent strain in that the productivity of the protease is improved under the condition of the pH adjuster low concentration medium. The alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to the present invention is named Bacillus sp. KSM-PH401, and is registered with FERM at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Patent Biological Deposit Center (address: 1-1-1 Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki). The microorganism deposited as P-21609 is mentioned.
Bacillus sp. KSM-PH401 has the same mycological and physiological properties as the parent strain.

The alkaline protease-producing bacterium of the present invention can be used as a host for high production of alkaline protease. For example, a recombinant plasmid obtained by binding a DNA fragment containing the target alkaline protease structural gene and an appropriate plasmid vector is incorporated into the alkaline protease-producing bacterium of the present invention using a general transformation method. Recombinant bacteria (transformants) can be obtained.
Here, the vector is not particularly limited as long as it can stably express an alkaline protease and can stably retain the gene. For example, pHY300PLK shuttle vector (Yakult), pASP64 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-287687). No. gazette). In addition, transformation can be performed using a protoplast method, a competent cell method, an electroporation method, or the like.
Selection of transformants can be performed by the same method as selection of alkaline protease producing bacteria.

If the alkaline protease-producing bacterium of the present invention or the transformant is inoculated in an appropriate liquid medium and aerobically cultured according to a conventional method, the alkaline protease can be produced efficiently.
The liquid medium for producing an alkaline protease used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it can grow Bacillus bacteria, but for example, a nitrogen source that can be assimilated, a carbon source, and a trace amount of vitamins, metal salts and the like. An eutrophic medium in which nutrient sources are appropriately combined is used. In the rich medium, the carbon source and nitrogen source are not particularly limited, but as the carbon source, arabinose, xylose, glucose, mannose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, maltose, lactose, sorbitol, mannitol, inosit, glycerin, soluble starch And inexpensive molasses, conversion, etc., and organic acids that can be assimilated, such as acetic acid. Examples of the nitrogen source include corn gluten meal, soybean powder, corn steep liquor, casamino acid, yeast extract, meat extract, fish extract, polypeptone, various amino acids, soy bean meal, adipron, inorganic nitrogen compounds and the like.
The nitrogen source in the medium is preferably 2 to 6% by mass, particularly 4 to 6% by mass, and the carbon source is preferably 1 to 10% by mass, and particularly preferably 5 to 10% by mass.
The medium includes inorganic salts such as phosphate, Mg ²⁺ , Ca ²⁺ , Mn ²⁺ , Zn ²⁺ , Fe ²⁺ , Fe ³⁺ , Na ⁺ , K ⁺ , biotin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxal Vitamins such as thiamine can also be added.

  From the viewpoint of improving the productivity of alkaline protease, the pH of the medium is preferably 7 to 10, and particularly preferably 8 to 9, and the pH adjusting agent can be used for pH adjustment. In addition, the culture is preferably performed at 25 to 40 ° C., preferably 30 to 35 ° C., for 1 to 4 days, preferably 2 to 4 days, and if necessary, shaking culture is performed.

Sampling and purification of alkaline protease from the obtained culture can be performed according to the means for sampling and purifying general enzymes.
That is, microbial cells are separated from the culture by centrifugation, filtration, etc., and from the microbial cells and culture filtrate, usual separation means such as salting out method, isoelectric point precipitation method, solvent precipitation method (methanol, ethanol, Proteins are precipitated with isopropyl alcohol, acetone, etc.) or concentrated by ultrafiltration to obtain alkaline protease. In the salting-out method, for example, ammonium sulfate (90% saturated fraction), in the solvent precipitation, for example, the enzyme is precipitated in 75% ethanol, followed by filtration or centrifugation, and desalting to obtain a lyophilized powder. It is also possible.

  The enzyme solution thus obtained can be used as it is, but can also be used after purification, crystallization, or granulation by a known method. For further purification of the enzyme, for example, adsorption chromatography such as hydroxyapatite chromatography, ion exchange chromatography such as DEAE-Sephadex, DEAE-cellulose, CM-cellulose, CM-biogel and molecular sieves such as Sephadex and biogel. Separation and purification may be performed by appropriately combining gel chromatography.

  The alkaline protease thus obtained can be used for detergents, photographic industry and food processing, and is particularly useful as a detergent-containing enzyme.

[Protease activity measurement method]
The activity of the alkaline protease obtained in the examples was measured as follows. That is, 0.9 ml of 1/15 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) and 0.05 ml of 40 mM Glt-Ala-Ala-Pro-Leu-p-nitroanilide / dimethyl sulfoxide solution were put in a test tube and kept at 30 ° C. for 5 minutes. Keep warm. 0.05 ml of the enzyme solution was added to this and reacted at 30 ° C. for 10 minutes, then 2.0 ml of 5% (w / v) aqueous citric acid solution was added to stop the reaction, and the reaction was carried out at 420 nm using a spectrophotometer. Absorbance was measured. One unit of enzyme was defined as the amount that produced 1 μmol of p-nitroaniline per minute in the above reaction.

Example 1 [mutant treatment]
(1) The following mutation treatment was performed using Bacillus sp. KSM-9865 strain (FERM-P18566) as a parent strain. That is, Bacillus sp. KSM-9865 strain (FERM-P18566) that had been cryopreserved was inoculated into the liquid medium of Table 1 (inoculation amount 0.1%), and pre-cultured (30 ° C., 120 rpm) for 13 hours. Then, the same composition medium was inoculated with the preculture (inoculation amount 0.5%), and cultured in a conical flask at 30 ° C. with shaking. The cells were collected from the culture solution at the time when the growth of the bacteria entered the late logarithmic growth phase (after about 11 hours of culture) by centrifugation (10000 rpm, 10 minutes, 4 ° C.), and the bacteria were suspended in 50 m of the liquid medium shown in Table 1. After that, NTG was added to a final concentration of 200 μg / ml and shaken at 30 to 37 ° C. for about 45 minutes. The cells were collected by centrifugation (2800 rpm, 30 minutes, 4 ° C.), and washed twice with 20 ml of the liquid medium shown in Table 1. The obtained bacterial solution is appropriately diluted with physiological saline, and a strain in which skim milk dissolution spots are clearly recognized around the colonies grown on the plate medium is selected, and various alkaline protease production liquid media are used. Protease productivity was evaluated.
The obtained mutant was named Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 and deposited as FERM P-21608 at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Patent Biological Deposit Center on July 18, 2008.

(2) The following mutation treatment was performed using the Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 strain prepared in (1) as a parent strain. That is, after the Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 strain that had been cryopreserved was inoculated into the liquid medium of Table 1 (inoculation amount 0.1%) and pre-cultured (30 ° C., 120 rpm) for 13 hours, the same The preculture solution was inoculated into the composition medium (inoculation amount 0.5%), and the shaking culture was performed at 30 ° C. in the Erlenmeyer flask. The cells were collected from the culture solution at the time when the growth of the fungus entered the late phase of logarithmic growth (after about 11 hours of culture) by centrifugation (10000 rpm, 10 minutes, 4 ° C.), and the cells were suspended in 50 m of the liquid medium shown in Table 1. After that, NTG was added to a final concentration of 200 μg / ml and shaken at 30 to 37 ° C. for about 45 minutes. The cells were collected by centrifugation (2800 rpm, 30 minutes, 4 ° C.), and washed twice with 20 ml of the liquid medium shown in Table 1.

Example 2 [Selection of mutant for suppressing pH decrease]
The bacterial solution treated with the mutagen was appropriately diluted with physiological saline, applied to a plate medium for selection shown in Table 2, and then cultured at 30 ° C. for 3 days. 224 strains that formed a normal morphology and clearly showed skim milk dissolution spots around the colony were selected and subjected to transformation and liquid medium evaluation described below.

Example 3 [Transformation with a protease recombinant production plasmid]
An expression vector pASP64 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-287687) capable of replicating an amplified DNA fragment of about 2.0 kb structural gene derived from an alkaline protease derived from the Bacillus sp. KSM-KP43 strain (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-122) in Bacillus bacteria. The plasmid incorporated in the publication was prepared and used as DNA for subsequent transformation.
As a host to be transformed, Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 (parent strain) and 224 strain selected in Example 2 were used. The transformation was performed by electroporation using SSH-10 (Shimadzu Corporation) and Gene Pulser Cuvette (BioRad).
The transformant was grown on a plate medium shown in Table 3, and the presence or absence of the target protease gene was determined based on the formation of skim milk melting spots.
The transformants obtained for the parent strain and its mutant strain were subjected to subsequent culture.

Example 4 [Evaluation of pH reduction rate and protease productivity in liquid medium]
After confirming the isolation of single colonies and the formation of skim milk melting spots around the colonies for each transformant obtained in Example 3, one platinum loop was inoculated into the Sakaguchi flask containing 30 ml of the liquid medium shown in Table 4. Pre-culture was performed overnight at 30 ° C. and 125 rpm. After inoculating 0.4 ml of this culture solution into 20 ml of the liquid medium shown in Table 5 whose pH was measured in advance, after performing shaking culture at 30 ° C. and 230 rpm for 2 days (48 hours) in a culture Erlenmeyer flask, The medium pH was measured. The pH reduction rate of each strain was calculated from the formula (1). In addition, the protease activity in the culture supernatant was measured.
As a result, in 19 strains, the productivity of the recombinant protease was higher than that of the parent strain, and the pH of the medium after 2 days in culture was suppressed more in many strains than in the parent strain. One of these strains was named Bacillus SP KSM-PH401, and was deposited as FERM P-21609 at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Patent Biological Deposit Center on July 18, 2008. In the KSM-PH401 strain, the decrease in the pH of the medium after 2 days of culture was clearly suppressed as compared to the parent strain (see Table 6), and the productivity of the recombinant protease increased about 5.8 times that of the parent strain. (See FIG. 1). From this, it is speculated that the Bacillus sp. KSM-PH401 of the present invention has a mutation in a gene involved in suppression of pH decrease.

Claims (10)

  An alkaline protease-producing bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus, which has a pH reduction rate of 20% or less after 2 days of culture when cultured under liquid culture conditions containing 0.2% by mass of a pH adjuster.   The alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to claim 1, wherein the pH adjuster is sodium carbonate.   Bacteria belonging to the genus Bacillus having the ability to produce alkaline protease are subjected to mutation treatment, and then the obtained mutant strain is obtained by culturing in a medium containing 0 to 0.2% by mass of a pH adjuster. Item 3. An alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to Item 1 or 2.   4. The alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to claim 3, wherein the bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus having the ability to produce alkaline protease is Bacillus sp. KSM-9865 (FERM-P18566) or Bacillus sp. KSM-GLU51 (FERM-P21608).   An alkaline protease-producing bacterium named as Bacillus sp. KSM-PH401 and deposited as FERM P-21609 at the Patent Organism Depositary, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.   A bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus having an ability to produce alkaline protease is subjected to a mutation treatment, and then the obtained mutant strain is cultured in a medium containing 0 to 0.2% by mass of a pH adjusting agent. 6. A method for producing an alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to any one of 5 above.   The process according to claim 6, wherein the pH adjuster is sodium carbonate.   A method for producing an alkaline protease, comprising culturing the alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and collecting the alkaline protease from the culture.   A recombinant bacterium in which a gene encoding an alkaline protease is introduced into the alkaline protease-producing bacterium according to any one of claims 1 to 5.   A method for producing an alkaline protease using the recombinant bacterium according to claim 9.

Images