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1. Details of an improved method for starch-gel electrophoresis of water-soluble muscle proteins are given. 2. Methods are described for detecting enzyme activities on the starch gel after electrophoresis, by using pieces of filter paper. 3. Compositions of incubation mixtures suitable for detecting any of the enzymes of glycolysis, and certain other enzymes, are given. 4. A comparison of the various enzymes in extracts of several muscles from one rabbit was made; most differences are quantitative only. 5. A detailed comparison of the mobilities of various enzymes in extracts of muscles from a wide variety of species was made. Each species was found to have a characteristic pattern of proteins on the starch gel, and the mobilities of individual enzymes varied considerably. 6. Potential uses and extensions of the methods are discussed.

1 A new diagonal electrophoretic technique for determining the order of the lysine-containing tryptic peptides of a protein is described. The protein is converted into its trifluoracetyl derivative, digested enzymatically (or chemically), and the resulting peptides separated by paper electrophoresis. The paper is then treated with ammonia vapour, which re-exposes the ɛ-amino groups of the lysine residues, and submitted to a second electrophoresis at right angles to the first direction. Peptides containing lysine residues, together with the N-terminal peptide of the protein, are found to lie off a diagonal formed by all other peptides, whence they may be readily purified. A study of these peptides enables the order of the lysine-containing tryptic peptides in the protein to be deduced. 2 The technique has been successfully tested with insulin. 3 When the method was applied to porcine pepsin, the four tryptic peptides isolated were easily ordered and the carboxyl-terminal sequence of the protein shown to be Arg-Gln-Tyr-Tyr-Thr-Val-Phe-Asp-Arg-Ala-Asn-Asn-Lys-Val-Gly-Leu-Ala-Pro-Val-Ala. The three basic amino acid residues in the molecule are thus found clustering towards the C-terminus of the polypeptide chain. 4 A common ancestral gene for porcine pepsin and bovine (calf) rennin is suggested by the close homology between the C-terminal sequences of the two proteins.

A critical examination of the DEAE-cellulose dise method of radio-chemical enzyme assay was carried out in order to define the conditions which give accurate and reproducible results. The effects of increasing salt concentrations and sample sizes on the retention of UDP-glucose by DEAE dises are reported. It was shown that salt concentrations as low as 12.5 mM can interfere with the assay of sugar nucleotide. In addition, the effect of various methods of drying and the use of more than 1 dise in the assay were examined. It is pointed out that the limits of operation within which reliable results can be expected are quite narrow.

The assay technique consists of determining a labeled anionic product as the radioactivity remaining on anionexchange paper as measured by direct liquid scintillation counting of the paper after elution of the labeled nonionic substrate from the paper with water. Phosphorylations catalyzed by galactokinase and hexokinase are employed as examples. (auth)

Zygorhynchus vuilleminii , a nonmelanin-containing fungus, was not lysed by mycolytic actinomycetes. Several enzymes and Streptomyces enzyme preparations digesting walls of other fungi were without appreciable activity on walls of Zygorhynchus species. A bacterium able to solubilize a portion of the Zygorhynchus wall released little or no reducing sugars from these structures. Fractions of Z. vuilleminii walls were resistant to glucanase hydrolysis, but certain fractions were digested by chitinase and microbial enzyme preparations. The walls and several wall fractions were not readily susceptible to degradation by a soil community. Walls of lysis-resistant Zygorhynchus species contained glucosamine, fucose, glucuronic acid, and galactose but little or no glucose. Resistant wall fractions were rich in uronic acid and fucose, whereas the readily degradable fractions contained abundant glucosamine. Cultural conditions affected the extent of digestion and composition of the walls. Possible reasons for the resistance of Zygorhynchus to lysis in nature are discussed.

IN the first report1,2, on ‘crossing paper electrophoresis’, a direct demonstration of enzyme-substrate complex has been described. The enzymes tested included crystallized pure trypsin, chymotrypsin and ribonuclease.