title: Reinvestigation of fractionation and some properties of the proteolytically active components of stem and fruit bromelains.
abstract: To check whether crude stem and fruit bromelains can be fractionated further or not, systematic separation procedures were applied to both enzymes. Six proteolytically active components, which were designated as SBB 1-5 and SBA, were fractionated from crude stem bromelain by successive use of gel filtration on Sephadex G-75, and chromatographies on CM-Sephadex and DEAE-Sephacel. One main and one minor active components, designated as FBA and FBB, respectively, were also separated from crude fruit bromelain by chromatographies on DEAE-Sephacel and then CM-Sephadex. Some of the physico-chemical and enzymatic properties of these eight components were compared. Each component migrated as a single band on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Molecular weights determined by the same electrophoresis were about 27,000 for SBB 1-3 and FBB, and about 23,000 for the other four components. In terms of amino acid composition, FBB resembled SBB 1-3, which were remarkably similar to each other. FBA was also similar to SBA in amino acid composition, and contained much less basic amino acids than SBB 1 through 5. The principal amino-terminal residues determined by the cyanate method were valine in SBB 1-5 and SBA, and alanine in FBA and FBB. The principal carboxyl-terminal residues determined by the hydrazinolysis method were glycine in SBB 1-3, SBA and FBA, and serine in SBB 4-5 and FBB. However, fractional amounts of a few other amino- and carboxyl-terminal residues were also detected. As regards enzymatic activities, FBA and SBB 4 and 5 were much more active than the other five components against casein and some synthetic substrates [Bz-Arg-amide (at pH 6.1), Z-Gly-X, and Z-Ala-X (at pH 3.5)] with the notable exception that FBA was much less active than SBB 4 and 5 toward tripeptides (X-Gly-Gly).
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D001963:Bromelains / Q000032:analysis*; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000032:analysis; D005638:Fruit / Q000032:analysis; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010944:Plants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D002241:Carbohydrates; D001963:Bromelains