Industrial applications of a cloned neutral protease gene in Bacillus subtilis

Genes for the α-amylase and neutral protease were cloned from an industrial Bacillus isolate, Bsl, onto two separate plasmids and introduced into a B. subtilis strain. Both plasmids were stably maintained in this strain. Analysis of the extracellular proteins showed that the plasmidcarrying strain produced predominantly the Bsl α-amylase and neutral protease with few contaminating B. subtilis exoenzymes. The presence of high levels of protease enabled the strain to produce considerably more α-amylase when grown on a complex industrial medium rich in protein. © 1986 Springer-Verlag.