A comparison of the distribution of extracellular proteins produced by the protease-secreting organism Aeromonas salmonicida during aerobic and anaerobic growth

Abstract

Aeromonas salmonicida was grown aerobically and anaerobically in supplemented 3% (w/v) tryptone soya broth medium for 24 h at 25 degrees C. Although the bacterial density achieved was 4.9 times higher in the aerobic culture, the exoprotein produced per unit of bacterial dry weight was only 1.9 times higher than in the anaerobic culture. However, the protease activity of the exoprotein showed a marked reduction anaerobically, being only one-tenth of that of the exoprotein produced aerobically. This finding was consistent with the differing SDS-PAGE patterns of the extracellular proteins from the two cultures, which also showed marked loss and reinforcement of other, as yet unidentified extracellular products.