The present invention is a substantially purified
sortase-transamidase
enzyme from
Gram-positive
bacteria, such as
Staphylococcus aureus. The
enzyme having a molecular weight of about 23,539 or about 29,076 daltons and catalyzing a reaction that covalently cross-links the carboxyl terminus of a
protein having a sorting
signal to the
peptidoglycan of a
Gram-positive bacterium, the sorting
signal having: (1) a motif of LPX3X4G therein; (2) a substantially hydrophobic domain of at least 31 amino acids carboxyl to the motif; and (3) a charged
tail region with at least two positively charged residues carboxyl to the substantially hydrophobic domain, at least one of the two positively charged residues being
arginine, the two positively charged residues being located at residues 31-33 from the motif, wherein X3 is any of the twenty naturally-occurring L-amino acids and X4 is selected from the group consisting of
alanine,
serine, and
threonine, and wherein sorting occurs by cleavage between the fourth and fifth residues of the LPX3X4G motif. Variants of the
enzyme, methods for
cloning the
gene encoding the enzyme and expressing the cloned
gene, and methods of use of the enzyme, including for screening for
antibiotics and for display of proteins or peptides on the surfaces of
Gram-positive
bacteria, are also disclosed.