These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed


  • Title: Evidence for a close similarity in the catalytic sites of papain and ficin in near-neutral media despite differences in acidic and alkaline media. Kinetics of the reactions of papain and ficin with chloroacetate.
    Author: Brocklehurst K, Mushiri SM, Patel G, Willenbrock F.
    Journal: Biochem J; 1982 Jan 01; 201(1):101-4. PubMed ID: 7044370.
    Abstract:
    1. The pH-dependences of the second-order rate constants (k) for the alkylation by chloroacetate of the active-centre thiol groups of papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and ficin (EC 3.4.22.3) were determined over a wide range of pH at 25 degrees C at I 0.1. 2. The main feature of both pH-k profiles is a striking rate maximum at pH6 (characterizing parameters in both cases pKI approx. 3.5, pKII approx. 8.4 and pH-independent rate constant approximately kXH 2.5-3.0 M-1 . s-1). 3. The profile for the ficin reaction contains a plateau at high pH, with approximately kX 0.10 M-1 . s-1; if an analogous plateau exists in the papain reaction, approximately kX ix much lower, less than 0.02 M-1 . s-1. 4. Both enzymes appear to contain closely similar thiolate-imidazolium interactive systems at pH6, but differences in their behaviour in more-acidic media and in alkaline media suggest differences in interaction with the postulated carboxylate component of the putative catalytic triad.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]