Affinity purification of the novel cysteine proteinase papaya proteinase IV, and papain from papaya latex.

A procedure is described for the purification of a previously undetected cysteine proteinase, which we have called papaya proteinase IV, from spray-dried latex of the papaya (Carica papaya) plant. The purification involves affinity chromatography on Gly-Phe-aminoacetonitrile linked to CH-Sepharose 4B, with elution by 2-hydroxyethyl disulphide at pH 4.5. The product thus obtained is a mixture of almost fully active papain and papay proteinase IV, which are then separated by cation-exchange chromatography. A preliminary characterization of papaya proteinase IV showed it to be very similar to chymopapain in both molecular size and charge. However, the new enzyme is immunologically distinct from the previously characterized cysteine proteinases of papaya latex. It also differs in its lack of activity against the synthetic substrates of the other papaya proteinases, in its narrow specificity against protein substrates and its lack of inhibition by chicken cystatin. Papaya proteinase IV is abundant, contributing almost 30% of the protein in spray-dried papaya latex, and contamination of chymopapain preparations with this enzyme may account for some of the previously reported heterogeneity of chymopapain.     

Chymopapain A. Purification and investigation by covalent chromatography and characterization by two-protonic-state reactivity-probe kinetics, steady-state kinetics and resonance Raman spectroscopy of some dithioacyl derivatives.

Chymopapain A was isolated from the dried latex of papaya (Carica papaya) by ion-exchange chromatography followed by covalent chromatography by thiol-disulphide interchange. The latter procedure was used to produce fully active enzyme containing one essential thiol group per molecule of protein, to establish that the chymopapain A molecule contains, in addition, one non-essential thiol group per molecule and to recalculate the literature value of epsilon 280 for the enzyme as 36 000 M-1 X cm -1. The Michaelis parameters for the hydrolysis of L-benzoylarginine p-nitroanilide and of benzyloxy-carbonyl-lysine nitrophenyl ester at 25 degrees C, and I 0.1 at several pH values catalysed by chymopapain A, papaya proteinase omega, papain (EC 3.4.22.2) and actinidin (EC 3.4.22.14) were determined. Towards these substrates chymopapain A has kcat./km values similar to those of actinidin and of papaya proteinase omega and significantly lower than those of papain or ficin. The environment of the catalytic site of chymopapain A is markedly different from those of other cysteine proteinases studied to date, as evidenced by the pH-dependence of the second-order rate constant (k) for the reaction of the catalytic-site thiol group with 2,2'-dipyridyl disulphide. The striking bell-shaped component that is a characteristic feature of the reactions of S-/ImH+ (thiolate/imidazolium) ion-pair components of many cysteine-proteinase catalytic sites with the 2,2'-dipyridyl disulphide univalent cation is not present in the pH-k profile for the chymopapain A reaction. The result is consistent with the presence of an additional positive charge in, or near, the catalytic site that repels the cationic form of the probe reagent. Resonance Raman spectra were collected at pH values 2.5, 6.0 and 8.0 for each of the following dithioacyl derivatives of chymopapain A: N-benzoylglycine-, N-(Beta-phenylpropionl)glycine- and N-methoxycarbonylphenylalanylglycine-. The main conclusion of the spectral study is that in each case the acyl group binds as a single population known as conformer B in which the glycinic N atom is in close contact with the thiol S atom of the catalytic-site cysteine residue, as is the case also for papain and other cysteine proteinases studied. Thus the abnormal catalytic-site environment of chymopapain A detected by the reactivity-probe studies, which may have consequences for the acylation step of the catalytic act, does not perturb the conformation of the bound acyl group at the acyl-enzyme-intermediate stage of catalysis.     

Papaya proteinase IV amino acid sequence

The amino acid sequence of papaya proteinase IV (PPIV), a major proteinase from the latex of Carica papaya [(1989) Biochem. J. 261, 469-476] is described. The enzyme has a high degree of sequence identity with papaya proteinase III, chymopapain and papain (81, 70 and 67%, respectively), and is clearly a member of the papain superfamily of cysteine proteinases. Nevertheless, the sequence shows substitution of certain residues conserved in all other known members of the superfamily. It is suggested that some of these substitutions may account for the unusual specificity of PPIV.     

The thiol proteinases from the latex of Carica papaya L. III. The primary structure of chymopapain

The amino-acid sequence of chymopapain is presented. It was isolated from the latex of the fruits from the tropical species Carica papaya L. and is, besides papain and papaya proteinase omega, the third thiol proteinase from this source. The primary structure contains 218 amino-acid residues. It was deduced from sequence analysis of the native enzyme and of peptides obtained by tryptic, chymotryptic, peptic, thermolysinolytic and mild acidic hydrolysis. Out of a total of eight cysteine residues, six are involved in the formation of three disulfide bonds, the location of which has been established with the help of peptic and thermolysinolytic peptides and fragments, obtained by mild acidic hydrolysis. Chymopapain shares 126 identical amino-acid residues (58%) with papain and 141 (65%) with papaya proteinase omega, including the three disulfide bridges and the free cysteine in position 25, required for activity. Except some amino-acid residues in the substrate-binding site, all residues involved in the catalytic mechanism are conserved. The homology between papaya proteinases is discussed.     

Purification and characterization of the cysteine proteinases in the latex of Vasconcellea spp

Latex of all Vasconcellea species analyzed to date exhibits higher proteolytic amidase activities, generally attributed to cysteine proteinases, than the latex of Carica papaya. In the present study, we show that this higher activity is correlated with a higher concentration of enzymes in the latex of Vasconcellea fruits, but in addition also results from the presence of other cysteine proteinases or isoforms. In contrast to the cysteine proteinases present in papaya latex, which have been extensively studied, very little is known about the cysteine proteinases of Vasconcellea spp. In this investigation, several cDNA sequences coding for cysteine proteinases in Vasconcellea x heilbornii and Vasconcellea stipulata were determined using primers based on conserved sequences. In silico translation showed that they hold the characteristic features of all known papain-class cysteine proteinases, and a phylogenetic analysis revealed the existence of several papain and chymopapain homologues in these species. Ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration procedures were applied on latex of V. x heilbornii in order to characterize its cysteine proteinases at the protein level. Five major protein fractions (VXH-I-VXH-V) revealing very high amidase activities (between 7.5 and 23.3 nkat x mg protein(-1)) were isolated. After further purification, three of them were N-terminally sequenced. The observed microheterogeneity in the N-terminal and cDNA sequences reveals the presence of several distinct cysteine proteinase isoforms in the latex of Vasconcellea spp.     

The thiol proteinases from the latex of Carica papaya L. IV. Proteolytic specificities of chymopapain and papaya proteinase omega determined by digestion of alpha-globin chains

The proteolytic specificities of chymopapain and papaya proteinase omega were investigated by using the alpha-chains of manatee and mole haemoglobin, whose primary structures are known, as substrates. The resulting peptides from each enzymatic cleavage were isolated by gel filtration on Sephadex G-25, followed by reversed-phase HPLC of the separated peaks and, in some cases, further purified by preparative thin-layer electrophoresis. The purified peptides were then identified on the basis of their amino-acid composition. The proteolytic specificities of chymopapain and papaya proteinase omega, deduced from the experimental cleavage patterns, are compared to that of papain. As in the case of papain, the specificity-determining factor is the amino-acid residue of the substrate that will be bound in subsite S2 (the next but one from the scissible bond). Aromatic residues in this position, preferred by papain, are not important for chymopapain and papaya proteinase omega. Cleavages preferentially occur when S2 is occupied by leucine, valine or threonine. For chymopapain, proline in position S2 also causes cleavage.     

The thiol proteinases from the latex of Carica papaya L. I. Fractionation, purification and preliminary characterization

Three thiol proteinases, namely papain, chymopapain and proteinase omega were purified to homogeneity from the latex of Carica papaya L. During the purification procedure, the thiol function of the cysteinyl residues were protected either as mixed disulfides with cysteamine or 2-thiopyridone or as S-sulphenylthiosulfate derivative or after blocking with p-chloromercuribenzoic acid. In marked contrast with earlier publications, chymopapain also was found to be a monothiol proteinase as papain and proteinase omega. The active sites of chymopapain and proteinase omega could not be distinguished from that of papain neither by the analysis of the pH dependence of kcat/Km nor by the examination of the pH dependence of the fluorescence emission spectra.     

Monoclonal antibodies to the two most basic papaya proteinases

The proteinases fromCarica papaya include papain, isoenzymes of chymopapain and two proteinases A and B distinguished by their unusually high pI. The identity of one of the most basic proteinases has been questioned. The present report describes the preparation and characterisation of two monoclonal antibodies that react specifically with papaya proteinases A and B respectively and a third that identifies a common structural feature found in papain and proteinase A.     

The preparation of fully active chymopapain free of contaminating proteinases

Chymopapain (EC 3.4.22.6) was purified from commercially available dried latex of papaya (Carica papaya) by extraction at acidic pH, cation-exchange chromatography and active site-directed affinity chromatography on immobilized alanyl-phenyl-alaninaldehyde semicarbazone, with elution by mercuric chloride. The product was found by immunoassay to be essentially free of the other cysteine proteinases from papaya, including papaya proteinase IV, and was fully active. The rate of alkylation of the active site cysteine of chymopapain by iodoacetate was found to be sufficiently rapid and selective for this reagent to be used as an active-site titrant.     

Molecular cloning of two cysteine proteinases from paw-paw (Carica papaya).

Two cDNA clones for plant cysteine proteinases have been isolated from a Carica papaya (paw-paw, papaya) leaf tissue cDNA library by using a mixture of 16 synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides as a hybridization probe. The inserted regions are 311 and 440 base-pairs in length and have the potential to encode a region corresponding to the C-terminal region of two proteins which are homologous with the known plant cysteine proteinases and the mammalian thiol cathepsins. One of the sequences shows a high (greater than 77%) homology with the plant cysteine proteinase papain, the other is closely related to papaya chymopapain. One sequence contains all, and the other most, of the 3' untranslated region of the mRNA. The inserts were used as specific probes in Northern Blot analyses giving an estimated size for the two mRNA species of 1.45 kilobases.