Operational stability of copolymerized enzymes at elevated temperatures

The copolymerization method of immobilization was used to obtain preparations of enzymes covalently incorporated in polyacrylamide gel. They possess properties making them suitable for practical use. First, the preparations are hundreds of times more stable against irreversible thermoinactivation than native enzymes. Second, on immobilization, the reversible conformational changes which also lower enzyme activity at elevated temperatures are completely suppressed. As a result, the temperatures of maximum activity for trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin covalently entrapped in polyacrylamide gel are 75 and 70 degrees C, respectively-25 and 30 degrees C higher than the corresponding values for the native enzymes. Therefore, the copolymerized enzyme preparations have a high operational stability at elevated temperatures.