Functional characteristics of phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipases C from Bacillus cereus and Bacillus...

Phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C was purified from the culture medium of B. thuringiensis to high specific activity using a procedure we recently described for purification of PI-PLC from B. cereus (Volwerk et al. (1989) J. Cell. Biochem. 39, 315-325). The purified enzymes from B. thuringiensis and B. cereus have similar specific activities towards hydrolysis of the membrane lipid phosphatidylinositol, and also towards hydrolysis of the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol-containing membrane anchor of bovine erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase. These results indicate very similar catalytic properties for the structurally homologous PI-specific phospholipases C secreted by these bacilli.