PURIFICATION OF PENICILLIN-G AMIDASE USING QUATERNARY AMMONIUM-SALTS AND EFFECT ON THE ACTIVITY OF THE IMMOBILIZED ENZYMES

This paper describes the purification of Penicillin G Amidase (EC 3.5. 1.11) using quaternary ammonium salts with the aim of increasing the a ctivity of immobilised enzymes prepared from the purified solutions. T wo different quaternary ammonium salts were tested with different solu tions of the enzyme. It was concluded that the quaternary ammonium sal ts used selectively precipitated the non-enzymatic protein leaving in solution practically all the enzyme resulting in a high yield of purif ication. Optimal conditions for purification using the two types of qu aternary ammonium salts were determined. Immobilisation studies were p erformed from various purified enzyme solutions, using different amoun ts of a quaternary ammonium salt. The immobilised enzymes so obtained showed a much higher activity than the immobilised enzyme obtained fro m non-purified enzyme solutions.