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Chymopapain

1967; Elsevier BV; Volume: 139; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0005-2744(67)90044-7

1878-1454

Donald K. Kunimitsu, Kerry T. Yasunobu,

African Botany and Ecology Studies

1. The partially purified chymopapain fraction from dried papaya latex has been fractionated further by chromatography on Amberlite XE-64 resin and the distribution of proteolytic activity has been studied in greater detail. “Procedure A” resolves the chymopapain fraction into 8 major fractions. 2. In order to compare the properties of the various components, “Procedure B” was developed, which separates the chymopapain fraction into 4 major components. Amino acid content, N-terminal residues, chromatographic behavior, sulfhydryl content and specific activity were determined for each of the 4 components. Although all the fractions show the properties described previously for chymopapain, distinct differences were noted in the chemical and enzymatic properties. 3. The protease designated chymopapain B can be obtained in crystalline form from Fraction VIII by Procedure A and from Fraction IV by Procedure B. The enzyme differs from chymopapain A with respect to N-terminal residue, specific activity, sulfhydryl content and amino acid composition. The crystalline enzyme was shown to be monodisperse electrophoretically, by ultracentrifugation, N-terminal amino acid analysis and rechromatography.