Amino acid sequence of the small cyanogen bromide peptide of thermitase, a thermostable serine proteinase from Thermoactinomyces vulgaris

The following amino acid sequence of the small cyanogen bromide peptide (mol. wt. 5399) of thermitase from Thermoactinomyces vulgaris has been determined: Ala-Thr-Pro-His-Val-Ala-Gly-Val-Ala-Gly-Leu-Leu-Ala-Ser-Gln-Gly-Arg-Ser-Ala-Ser -Asn-Ile-Arg-Ala-Ala-Ile-Glu-Asn-Thr-Ala-Asp-Lys-Ile-Ser-Gly-Thr-Gly-Thr-Tyr-Trp-Ala-Lys-Gly-Arg-Val-Asn-Ala-Tyr-Lys-Ala-Val-Gln-Tyr. The results obtained support the classification of the enzyme as a serine proteinase of the subtilisin type as proposed in a previous paper (1). This partial sequence extending from the serine residue involved in the active site to the C-terminal amino acid of the enzyme shows a 40% homology with the corresponding part of the subtilisin BPN' or subtilisin Carlsberg molecule but a 56% homology as regards conservative amino acid replacements. The secondary structure of this polypeptide fragment, predicted from the data obtained by the method of Chou & Fasman (2) agrees fairly well, within the limit or error of the method, with the structure of the corresponding part of the subtilisin BPN' molecule. Therefore, as expected, no dramatic changes in the spatial structure appear to account for the higher thermostability of thermitase, at least in this area of the polypeptide chain.