title: Purification and initial characterization of guinea pig testicular acrosin.
abstract: Guinea pig (GP) acrosin was purified following acid extraction of testicular acetone powder, pH precipitation of the soluble extract, gel filtration on Sephadex G-100, ion-exchange chromatography on SP-Sephadex, and affinity chromatography on Concanavalin A-Sepharose. Final purification was achieved by re-chromatography on Sephadex G-100. Enzymatic activity was detected by following the hydrolysis of N-benzyloxycarbonylarginyl amide of 7-amino-4-trifluoromethylcoumarin at 37 degrees C, pH 8.0, before and after activation. GP testicular acrosin exhibited a molecular weight of 48,000 by gel filtration and 34,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Following SDS-PAGE in gels containing 0.1% gelatin, protease activity was observed to comigrate with the major protein detected by silver staining. The purified GP acrosin showed cross-reactivity with a monospecific polyclonal rabbit antiserum directed against boar sperm acrosin and exhibited reversible pH-dependent activation. The physiochemical characteristics of the purified protein, including the amino acid composition, resemble those reported for acrosins from other species.
mesh_terms: D000176:Acrosin / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008297:Male; D008970:Molecular Weight; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013737:Testis / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D000176:Acrosin