5a). The lytic activity of the endolysin was not completely inactivated despite incubating at 100 °C for 30 min, with > 15% of

its activity remaining compared with the non-heat-treated control (Fig. 5b). In contrast, autoclaving for 15 min at 121 °C completely inactivated RG7420 datasheet LysBPS13. Taken together, these results indicate that LysBPS13 has exceptionally high thermostability. We found that the high thermostability of LysBPS13 was dependent on the presence of glycerol in the storage buffer. Without glycerol, LysBPS13 still had higher thermostability than similar endolysins, such as T7 lysozyme, which is inactivated after a 5-min incubation at 50 °C (Kleppe et al., 1977). However, addition of glycerol up to 30% (v/v) enhanced the thermostability of LysBPS13 dramatically (Fig. 5c). It has been reported that polyols, such as glycerol, preferentially hydrate protein molecules and, consequently,

stabilize the native structure against thermal denaturation (Paciaroni et al., 2002; Spinozzi et al., 2008; Esposito et al., 2009), but the effect of glycerol on thermostability is not universal to all enzymes. In the case of LysB4, another endolysin from a B. cereus bacteriophage, glycerol did not affect its thermostability at all (Son et al. 2012). Moreover, 30% glycerol did not influence PD-0332991 concentration the lytic activity of LysBPS13 (data not shown). Therefore, the ability of glycerol to support the high thermostability of LysBPS13 is an asset for its use in molecular biology second as well as in industry. In this study, a

putative endolysin gene was identified in the genome of the B. cereus bacteriophage BPS13. This enzyme consisted of a catalytic domain and a cell-binding domain and was determined to be an N-acetylmuramyl-l-alanine amidase, active against Bacillus species and EDTA-treated Gram-negative bacteria. Biochemical characterization showed that LysBPS13 possesses several advantageous features for industrial applications. LysBPS13 retained lytic activity under various conditions, including a broad range of temperatures and ionic strengths. Addition of detergents, such as Tween20, Triton X-100, and CHAPS, did not reduce the lytic activity of the endolysin, which supports its potential to serve as a detergent additive or disinfectant. In addition, it showed activity against some Gram-negative pathogens, and EDTA did not affect its lytic activity, suggesting that it could be easily applied to target Gram-negative pathogens when using EDTA as the permeabilizing agent. Furthermore, LysBPS13 has high thermostability and lytic activity in the presence of glycerol. Because glycerol is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and personal care applications, this feature is favorable for applications in these fields. In conclusion, LysBPS13 is a competitive candidate as a biocontrol agent. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MEST) (No. 20090078983).