Identification and designing of the S3 site of aqualysin I, a thermophilic subtilisin-related serine protease

Protein engineering of subtilisin

The serine protease subtilisin is an important industrial enzyme as well as a model for understanding the enormous rate enhancements affected by enzymes. For these reasons along with the timely cloning of the gene, ease of expression and purification and availability of atomic resolution structures, subtilisin became a model system for protein engineering studies in the 1980s. Fifteen years later, mutations in well over 50% of the 275 amino acids of subtilisin have been reported in the scientific literature. Most subtilisin engineering has involved catalytic amino acids, substrate binding regions and stabilizing mutations. Stability has been the property of subtilisin which has been most amenable to enhancement, yet perhaps least understood. This review will give a brief overview of the subtilisin engineering field, critically review what has been learned about subtilisin stability from protein engineering experiments and conclude with some speculation about the prospects for future subtilisin engineering.

Application of a metal switch to aqualysin I, a subtilisin-type bacterial serine protease, to the S3 site residues, ser102 and gly131

We applied 'metal switch' experiments to the S3 site residues, Ser102 and Gly131, of aqualysin I, a subtilisin-type serine protease. We showed that two histidines introduced at these positions did take part in histidine-metal-histidine bridge formation, and metal ions inhibited the protease activities. These results indicate that two histidines are near each other, and both side chains are metal-accessible. This is the first report on application of the metal-switch technique to a subtilisin-related enzyme.