Thermostable Neutral Protease Resembling Thermolysin Derived from Bacillus brevis MIB001

Abstract

  A microbe producing a protease with strong thermostability that was released extracellularly was isolated from soil. The isolate, MIB001, grew at from 15 to 51°C and pH 5.1-8.8 and was tentatively identified as a strain of Bacillus brevis. Rabbit antisera raised against a pure preparation of the protease did not cross-react with thermolysin or neutral metalloprotease from Bacillus stearothermophilus KP1236.