%0 Journal Article %A Makino, Shio %A Ito, Norihito %A Inoue, Toshihiko %A Miyata, Shigeru %A Moriyama, Ryuichi %T A spore-lytic enzyme released from Bacillus cereus spores during germination %D 1994 %J Microbiology, %V 140 %N 6 %P 1403-1410 %@ 1465-2080 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-140-6-1403 %K germination cortex hydrolysis %K Bacillus cereus %K spore-lytic enzyme %I Microbiology Society, %X The exudate of fully germinated spores of Bacillus cereus IFO 13597 in 0·25 M sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7·0, was found to contain a spore-lytic enzyme. This enzyme was found to cause loss of absorbance in coat-stripped spore suspensions and phase-darkening of the spores but had minimal activity on isolated peptidoglycan substrates. The enzyme was purified in an active form and identified as a 24 kDa protein which is either an amidase or a peptidase. The amino-terminal 19 residues had the following sequence: FSNQVIQRGASGEKVIELQ. The spore-lytic enzyme retained its activity in a medium of a relatively high ionic strength containing a non-ionic surfactant such as nonaethyleneglycol n-dodecyl ether. This activity was optimum at a salt concentration of about 30 mM in assay buffer at neutral pH. In contrast to the enzyme in a spore-bound form, the enzyme in solution was shown to be heat-sensitive and was readily inactivated by thiol reagents. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-140-6-1403