Hm. Fernandez-lahore et al., Purification and characterization of an acid proteinase from mesophilic Mucor sp solid-state cultures, J PEPT RES, 53(6), 1999, pp. 599-605
The fourth-day extract of a solid-state culture of the mesophilic Mucor sp.
(M-105) strain showed a high milk-clotting activity and a clotting/proteol
ytic activity ratio similar to that of commercial preparations from microbi
al origin used in cheese manufacture. After ultrafiltration of the crude ex
tract, the milk-clotting proteinase was purified in two steps: ion-exchange
followed by size-exclusion chromatography. Enzyme homogeneity was assessed
by HPLC, SDS-PAGE and N-terminal residue determination. A pi value of 4.21
was obtained and a molecular weight of 33 kDa was calculated from size-exc
lusion chromatography and SDS-PAGE data. The optimum pH for proteolytic act
ivity towards dimethylcasein was in the 3.0-3.5 range. The proteinase retai
ned 26 and 13% of its proteolytic activity after a 30-min incubation period
, at pH 5.0 and 50 and 60 degrees C, respectively. This evidenced a lower h
eal stability than that of the thermophilic enzymes currently used in the c
heese industry and also than that of bovine chymosin. The enzyme was fully
inhibited by pepstatin A and no effect was observed with PMSF, p-CMPS or ED
TA. The N-terminal amino acid sequence: GTGTVPVTDDGNLNEYYXTVTVGXP was compa
red with those from other fungal enzymes.