AEM
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Merkel, J. R.
Right arrow Articles by Ziegler, H. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Merkel, J. R.
Right arrow Articles by Ziegler, H. B.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Merkel, J. R.
Right arrow Articles by Ziegler, H. B.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Appl Environ Microbiol. 1975 February; 29(2): 145-151
Copyright © 1975 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Collagenolytic Activity of Some Marine Bacteria1

Joseph R. Merkel, Joseph H. Dreisbach and Henry B. Ziegler2

Department of Chemistry and the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015

ABSTRACT

Reconstituted, acid-extracted collagen was used to prepare a medium to screen proteolytic marine bacteria for their ability to elaborate collagenolytic enzymes. The medium was resistant to solubilization by trypsin, hyaluronidase, chondroitinase ABC, and various marine proteinases, but was readily hydrolyzed by commercial Clostridium collagenases. Eighty-seven marine isolates collected in the vicinity of Bermuda, Oahu (Hawaii), and Stone Harbor and Cape May, N.J., were screened. Approximately 44% of the isolates were capable of elaborating enzymes that hydrolyzed reconstituted collagen gels. Several cultures produced collagenolytic enzymes only when grown in the presence of collagen or degradation products of collagen, and with very few exceptions the presence of collagen in the medium greatly enhanced collagenolytic enzyme production. The enzymes from a collagenolytic Bermuda marine isolate were studied in more detail to illustrate that the enzymes capable of hydrolyzing reconstituted collagen were separable from nonspecific proteinases by zone electrophoresis and that these enzymes were true collagenases by virtue of their ability to hydrolyze native bovine Achilles' tendon obtained from three different sources.

FOOTNOTES

2 Present address: Chemzymes Inc., P.O. Box 147, East Stroudsburg, Pa. 18301.

1 Contribution no. 107 from the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies.

Appl Environ Microbiol. 1975 February; 29(2): 145-151
Copyright © 1975 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. Eukaryot. Cell All ASM Journals

Copyright © 1975 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.