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Articles

Characteristics of an Acid Protease from Maize Endosperm ¹

^a Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1

An assay has been developed to measure protease activity in endosperm extracts of maize seeds. With hemoglobin as substrate, the enzyme(s) has a pH optimum of 3.8 and a temperature optimum of 46 C. It also degrades gliadin, edestin, bovine serum albumin, and partially hydrolyzed zein and glutelin under standard assay conditions. The enzyme(s) has endopeptidase activity with all substrates tested. When undenatured zein and glutelin are suspended in an agar gel, both are efficiently degraded. Using this assay, the protease activity increases from day 3 to day 8 after inhibition and then declines.

³ To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

¹ This work was supported by Grant A2818 from the National Research Council of Canada and a National Research Council of Canada Post Graduate Fellowship to B.M.R.H.