Antarctic bacterial isolates that produce cold-active extracellular proteases at low temperature but are active and stable at high temperature

We report the isolation and identification of bacteria that produce extracellular cold-active proteases, obtained from water samples collected near the Uruguayan Antarctic Base on King George Island, South Shetlands. The bacteria belonged to the genera Pseudomonas (growth between 4 and 30 °C) and Flavobacterium (growth between 4 and 18 °C). In all cases, extracellular protease production was evident when reaching the stationary phase at 18 and 4 °C but was not detected at 30 °C. The zymogram revealed the secretion of one extracellular protease per isolate, each with different relative electrophoretic mobility. The extracellular proteases produced at 4 °C showed thermal activity and stability at 30 °C. Both activity and stability at a temperature higher that 10 °C have no physiological meaning because the isolates do not experience such temperatures in the Antarctic environment; however, the possible ecological value of cold-active and -stable extracellular proteases is discussed