[Substrate specificity of Bacillus subtilis intracellular serine protease. Hydrolysis of insulin beta-chain, native ribonuclease A and p-nitroanilide peptide substrates].

Intracellular serine protease, termed ISP-103, was isolated from Bacillus subtilis, strain 103. The substrate specificity of the enzyme was compared to that of secretory subtilisins. Similar to subtilisins, ISP-103 cleaves a single peptide bond Ala20-Ser21 within the native pancreatic ribonuclease A, which results in the accumulation of trypsin-sensitive ribonuclease S, consisting of a non-covalently bound S-peptide (20 amino acid residues) and S-protein (104 amino acid residues). The enzyme hydrolyzes a single peptide bond Leu15-Tyr16 of the B-chain of oxidized bovine insulin, in contrast to the subtilisins cleaving four additional bonds. ISP prefers Leu rather than Phe in the P1 binding site of the rho-nitroanilide peptide substrates and shows a more strict dependence of the activity on the presence of the hydrophobic residues in the P2 and P3 sites. The data obtained indicate that the substrate specificity of ISP, being within the borders of subtilisin specificity, is nevertheless much more restricted.