The yeast-like fungus Aureobasidium pullulans PL5 is a microbial antagonist against postharvest pathogens of fruits. The strain is able to produce hydrolases, including glucanases, chitinases and proteases. The alkaline serine protease gene ALP5 from A. pullulans was cloned, inserted into the vector pPIC9 to construct pPIC9/ALP5, and then expressed in Pichia pastoris strain KM71. ALP5 had a mol...

Proteases play diverse and important roles in physiology and disease, including influencing critical processes in development, immune responses, and malignancies. Both the abundance and activity of these enzymes are tightly regulated and highly contextual; thus, in order to elucidate their specific impact on disease progression, better tools are needed to precisely monitor in situ protease acti...

During the course of human pregnancy, there is a marked increase in insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding protein (IGFBP)-3 protease activity in maternal serum that is first evident at 6 weeks of gestation, persists through term, and returns to nonpregnancy levels by day 5 postpartum. This protease activity cleaves IGFBP-3 into smaller fragments that have markedly reduced affinity for the IG...

To provide a theoretical basis to improve the survival and growth rate and optimize diet of sheatfish (Silurus soldatovi), the activities of certain digestive enzymes and alkaline phosphatases were investigated during larval development of one-ten day old individuals. Results indicated that sheatfish larva (~ three days after hatching) had high levels of alkaline protease activity, which peaked...

Protease activity is tightly regulated in both normal and disease conditions. However, it is often difficult to monitor the dynamic nature of this regulation in the context of a live cell or whole organism. To address this limitation, we developed a series of quenched activity-based probes (qABPs) that become fluorescent upon activity-dependent covalent modification of a protease target. These ...

This study describes the characterization of 80 kDa protease showing gelationlytic property among three proteases in the excretory/secretory proteins (ESP) from Toxoplasma gondii. The protease activity was detected in the ESP but not in the somatic extract of RH tachyzoites. This protease was active only in the presence of calcium ion but not other divalent cationic ions such as Cu(2+), Zn(2+),...

We assessed a collection of 47 fluorescent Pseudomonas spp., some with known biological     control activity against certain soil-borne phytopathogenic fungi such as, Macrophomina phaseolina, Rhizoctonia solani, Phytophthora nicotianae var. parasitica, Pythium sp. and  Fusarium sp. in vitro and the potential to produce known secondary metabolites such as, siderophore, HCN and protease. The resu...