The optimal reaction SB-715992 nmr pH of the endolysin was examined by adding dialyzed endolysins to cells of B. thuringiensis strain HD-73 resuspended in a Entinostat ic50 series of buffers (20 mM Tris) at various pH levels

(pH 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, and 12.0), and the OD600 was monitored as described above. The optimal reaction temperature of the endolysin was tested in 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0) at temperatures of 10–80°C in 10°C increments, and the OD600 was again monitored. To analyze the endolysin thermostability, endolysins in 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0) were first treated at different temperatures (4°C, 30°C, 40°C, 50°C, and 60°C) for 1 h and the lytic activity was tested as described above. All experiments were carried out in triplicate. Labeling and binding activity assay of PlyBt33-IC To test binding activity, purified PlyBt33-IC was labeled with FITC (Sigma-Aldrich, Saint Louis, PFT�� in vivo MO) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Following purification, PlyBt33-IC protein was dialyzed four times against FITC reaction buffer (7.56 g NaHCO3, 1.06 g Na2CO3, 7.36 g NaCl, with MilliQ water added to 1 l and the pH adjusted to 9.0). FITC was dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide to a concentration of 1 mg/ml and added into the PlyBt33-IC suspension at a ratio of 150 μg FITC

to 1 mg PlyBt33-IC. Following 8 h incubation at 4°C in the dark, the reaction was stopped with NH4Cl at a final concentration of 50 mM for 2 h at 4°C in the dark. The labeled protein was dialyzed against PBS (8 g NaCl, 0.2 g KCl, 3.49 g Na2HPO4.12H2O, 0.24 g KH2PO4, with MilliQ water added to 1 l and the pH adjusted to 7.4) several times until the dialysis liquid was colorless, and stored at −20°C until required. BSA was also labeled as above and used as a control. FITC-labeled proteins were named FITC-PlyBt33-IC and FITC-BSA. The specific binding activity of PlyBt33-IC to the cell wall was assayed as described previously with some modifications [12, 46]. B. thuringiensis strain HD-73 was grown to mid-exponential phase in LB broth (OD600 = 0.8), and the cells were harvested by centrifugation (10,000 × g for 1 min) and Carbohydrate resuspended

in a one-tenth volume of PBS-T (pH 7.4, 0.01% Tween 20). FITC-labeled PlyBt33-IC was added to a 100 μl cell suspension to a final concentration of 0.0125 mg/ml and incubated at 30°C for 5 min. For fluorescence microscopy observation, the cells were harvested by centrifugation and washed twice with 500 μl PBS-T buffer. The pellet was then resuspended in 50 μl PBS-T. FITC-labeled BSA was used as a control. All cells were observed using an Olympus BX51 microscope. Acknowledgments This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.31170123), the National Project (2009ZX08009-056B), and the projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-EW-G-16).