Identification of effective signal peptides
Instead of producing their own metabolites, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) make use of their nutrient rich surroundings. They are able to degrade external polypeptides and polysaccharides by secretion of different enzymes and to import the resulting small molecules. Our objective is indentification of signal peptides of strongly secreted proteins and to use them for biotechnological approaches.
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) play an essential role in the field of food preservation and silage production. As LAB are growing in very nutrient rich environments, they have lost their ability to synthesize a lot of metabolites on their own. Thus, excessive protein secretion is necessary for the proteolytic degradation and subsequent uptake of extracellular nutrients. This ability of LAB can be exploited in the field of biotechnology for the production and subsequent secretion of recombinant proteins. This project deals with the identification of leader sequences of strongly secreted proteins. These sequences can then be used for the directed, massive secretion of different recombinant proteins.