Serratia marcescens가 세포외로 분비하는 nuclease의 유전자가 발현된 Escherichia coli JM107을 배양하여 다량의 효소를 정제하였다. Matrex green gel과 heparin agarose gel column chromatography법으로 약 50배 정제한 효소는 분자량이 29KDa였으며, 전기영동 상에서 단일 띠를 보였다. 이 단백질을 이용하여 polyclonal antibody를 만들고, 면역조직화학법으로 세포내의 분포를 조사하였다. Nuclease는 주로 세포막에 존재하였고, 이를 토대로 효소가 세포질에서 합성된 후 세포막으로 빠르게 이동함을 알 수 있었다. 이 결과는 세포의 막분획에서 효소의 활성의 대부분이 회수되며, 면역블럿 방법으로 효소의 대부분이 세포막에서 검출된다는 결과와 일치하였다.
Nuclease was secreted to the environmental media from the Escherichia coli JM107 tranformant harboring the extracellular nuclease gene of Serratia marcescens in the plasmid of pNUC4. Under the growth conditions, the amount of secreted enzyme was increased in parallel with bacterial growth conditions, the amount of secreted enzyme was increased in parallel with bacterial growth. The enzyme was purified using chromatofraphic procedures of Matrex green gel and heparin agarose affinity gel, resulted in 50-fold purification with 15% recovery of the enzyme. The apparent molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 29Kda by sodium dodecylsulfate denaturing gel electrophoresis. Using the purified enzyme, polyclonal antibody was obtained from the rabbit. The specificity of the antibody was confirmed by immunoblotting and immunoprecipitaion. For the investigation of cellular distribution of the enzyme, cells were fractionated into three fractions; cytoplasm, periplasm and extracellular fluid. While more than 80% of the enzymatic activity was detected in the extracellular fluid and periplasm, a little was found in the cytoplasm, indicating that the enzyme was likely to be immediately exported to the membrane for excretion after biosynthesis. These results were confirmed again by immunocytochemistry technique using the antibody.
