Klebsiella pneumoniae strain K21: evidence for the rapid secretion of an unacylated form of pullulanase.

Klebsiella pneumoniae strain PAP996 was previously shown to secrete fatty acylated, aggregated (micellar) pullulanase only after the end of exponential growth. Here we show that the closely related strain K21 secretes large amounts of unacylated, non-aggregated (monomeric) pullulanase during exponential growth. Only a small amount (less than 10%) of the secreted pullulanase was initially retained by the exponentially growing cells to be subsequently secreted in a fatty acylated, aggregated form. Despite the absence of fatty acids in secreted monomeric pullulanase, the effects of the antibiotic globomycin on pullulanase maturation indicated that all of the enzyme synthesized by strain K21 is processed by lipoprotein signal peptidase.