Mechanisms of production of soil protease by proteolytic Bacillus subtilis in wetland rice soil

In sterile soil inoculated with proteolytic Bacillus subtilis, the correlation between variations in protease activity and cell numbers was investigated during incubation, and the results were compared with those obtained in different growth media. In sterile soil inoculated with B. subtilis, the extracted soil z-FLase activity (hydrolytic activity towards benzyloxycarbonyl-L-phenylalanyl-L-leucine extracted with 0.1 M phosphate buffer) was correlated with the extracted soil protein content (r=0.95; P<0.01) and the number of vegetative cells (r=0.88, P<0.05), while the extracted soil caseinase activity was well correlated with the number of spores (r=0.82, P<0.05) and not with the number of vegetative cells. Extracellular z-FLase activity in different growth media, inoculated with the proteolytic B. subtilis, was correlated with the extracellular protein concentration (r=0.73, P<0.01) and the number of cells (r=0.73, P<0.01), but extracellular caseinase activity was not correlated with either of these measurements. From these results, we concluded that soil z-FLase production might relate to vegetative growth of the proteolytic B. subtilis and soil caseinase might relate to B. subtilis sporulation.