Towards royal jelly proteome

The recent availability of the honey-bee Apis mellifera genome and trascriptome of both the female castes, has stimulated new efforts in investigating the protein composition of royal jelly (RJ), its role in caste differentiation and its quality and typicality by a proteomic approach. This study is aimed both to separate and identify proteins of royal jelly and to detect some of them in honey-bee pollen-bread by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry and by de novo sequencing. All the identified proteins belonged to the Apis mellifera genome. Apalbumin 1 was also confirmed to be present in honey-bee pollen-bread where the presence of apalbumin 2 was also found. In addition several fragments of apalbumin 1 and apalbumin 3 were also found in RJ. These could be the result of protease activity other than that of serine-protease. This study is a contribution to the description of royal jelly proteome.

Characterisation of a specific phycocyanin-hydrolysing protease purified from Spirulina platensis

A novel protease has been identified, purified and partially characterised from complete medium grown Spirulina platensis, which could be responsible for the selective proteolysis of phycobiliproteins. It is an 80 kDa homodimeric enzyme; its N-terminal sequence is not related to any known protease sequence. It hydrolyses native phycocyanins in both crude extracts and reconstructed systems with purified Allo- or C-phycocyanin. It is inactive on several native proteins, including ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase. The two phycocyanins are degraded at different velocities since C-phycocyanin is the better substrate, in agreement with the earlier observations on the progress of the phycobilisome disassembly. Specificity for synthetic substrates and inhibitors strongly suggests its assignment to the serine-protease family. The enzyme, however, is insensitive to the commercially available protein inhibitors of trypsin-like proteases.

The inhibition of a leaf proteinase by L-lysine homopolymers

The role of interlinked positively charged amino acids in the mechanism of inhibition of a monomeric trypsin-like proteinase has been investigated using high molecular mass L-lysine homopolymers ranging from 3.8 to 109 kDa. The data show that the degree of polymerization enhances the inhibitory efficiency which is maximal for homopolymers with more than eighteen interlinked lysine residues. The inhibition is cooperative and, under the maximal inhibition conditions, nine lysine residues of the polymer are involved in the electrostatic binding to the enzyme. A limited conformational change of the protein molecule accompanies the transition from a fully active to a fully inactivated enzyme.

Mechanism of polyamine inhibition of a leaf protease

The inhibition of a highly purified alfalfa (Medicago sativa) leaf protease by naturally occurring polyamines is reported. The tetraamine spermine shows the highest inhibitory effect, with the maximum inhibition at 0.1 mM. Kinetic data indicate an apparent hyperbolic competitive inhibition. CD measurements show that in the presence of 0.1 mM spermine the enzyme undergoes a conformational change with the loss of 16% alpha-helix secondary structure content. Both the inhibition and the conformational change are prevented by high ionic strength. These data suggest a novel control mechanism of proteolytic activity in the leaf.

Purification, stability and kinetic properties of highly purified adenosine deaminase from Bacillus cereus NCIB 8122

Adenosine deaminase (adenosine aminohydrolase, EC 3.5.4.4) from Bacillus cereus NCIB 8122 has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration through Sephadex G-100, DEAE-Sephadex A-50 chromatography and ion-exchange HPLC on DEAE-Polyol. The enzyme activity is stabilized (at temperatures from 0 degrees C to 40 degrees C) by 50 mM NH4+ or K+, while it is irreversibly lost in the absence of these or a few other monovalent cations. Glycerol (24% by volume) helps the cation in stabilizing the enzyme activity above 40 degrees C, but also exerts per se a noticeable protecting effect at room temperature. B. cereus adenosine deaminase displays the following properties: Mr on Sephadex G-200, 68,000; Mr in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, 53,700; optimal pH-stability (in the presence of 50 mM KCl) over the range 8-11 at 4 degrees C, and maximal catalytic activity at 30 degrees C between pH 7 and 10; Km for adenosine around 50 microM over the same pH range and Km for 2'-deoxyadenosine around 400 microM.

Purification and characterization of two leaf polypeptide inhibitors of leaf protease from alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

Two polypeptides with antiproteolytic activities have been isolated from alfalfa leaves. Polypeptide I resembles the previously described plant protease inhibitors in both structural and functional features; it has a molecular weight of 15,000, a random coil secondary structure, and inhibits exogenous protease as well as alfalfa leaf protease. Polypeptide II is a novel type of plant inhibitor with a molecular weight of 6300 and a highly organized structure with a high (40-50%) alpha-helix content. It only inhibits endogenous protease with a molar stoichiometry polypeptide/enzyme protein of 1.

Effects of pyridoxine-pyrrolidon-carboxylate on hepatic and cerebral ATP levels in ethanol treated rats

ATP levels were measured in the liver and brain of rats acutely intoxicated with ethanol. The pretreatment of the animals with pyridoxine-pyrrolidon carboxylate (Metadoxine) prevented the marked fall in ATP concentration caused by ethanol in both organs.

Radiation inactivation of rabbit muscle aldolase

Pulse radiolysis and steady-state X-radiolysis have been used to investigate the radiation inactivation of aldolase from rabbit muscle. Both eaq-and OH readily react with aldolase, and contribute to inactivation. The radical anions (CNS)2-and (Br)2-react with aldolase at neutral pH. The progressive addition of alkali results in an increase in the second-order rate constants, with an apparent pK approximately 10 +/- 0-3, and with the formation of an unstable intermediate, lambdamax approximately 400 nm resembling a phenoxyl radical. Steady-state radiolysis in the presence of (CNS)2-and (Br)2- at alkaline pH results in increased aldolase inactivation, with a pK of enzyme inactivation similar to that observed for reaction of the radical anions. We propose that a reaction of the radical anoins with tyrosine residues accounts for the resultant inactivation.

Catalytically active azoaldolase. Preparation on solid support

A procedure for the coupling at pH 7.2 of p-carboxy benzene diazonium chloride with rabbit muscle aldolase supported on phosphocellulose is described and some of the spectroscopic, structural and catalytic features of the material obtained are reported. The tetrameric azoenzyme is homogeneous in disc gel electrophoresis even in the presence of 8 M urea. Twelve molecules of the reactant are bound to the protein. Eight azocysteins are identified by both spectroscopic studies and amino acid analysis. The presence of one azohistidine is suggested by the spectroscopic data along with the presence of other, as yet unknown, chromophores. The azoaldolase shows unchanged catalytic properties using both D-fructose 1,6-bisphosphate and D-fructose 1-phosphate as substrates, as compared with the native enzyme. The pH profile of the enzyme activity is broadened towards the alkaline region but no changes occur in the physiological range of pH.