Purification and characteristics of trypsins from cold-zone fish, Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis)

Trypsins from the pyloric ceca of Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) (GM-T) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) (EG-T) were purified by gel filtration on Sephacryl S-200 and Sephadex G-50. The final enzyme preparations were nearly homogeneous on SDS–PAGE and the molecular weights of both enzymes were estimated to be approximately 24 kDa by SDS–PAGE. The specific trypsin inhibitors, soybean trypsin inhibitor and TLCK, strongly inhibited the activities of GM-T and EG-T. The optimum pH and optimum temperature of both trypsins were around pH 8.0 and 50 °C, respectively, using Nα-p-tosyl-l-arginine methyl ester as substrate. The GM-T and EG-T were unstable above 30 °C and below pH 5.0, and they were stabilised by calcium ion. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of GM-T (IVGGYECTRHSQAHQVSLNS) and EG-T (IVGGYECPRHSQAHQVSLNS) were found. The percentage of hydrophobic amino acid in the N-terminal 20 amino acids sequences of these cold-zone fish trypsins was lower (28%) than those of temperate-zone fish trypsins (34%), tropical-zone fish trypsins (37%) and mammalian trypsins (34%). Whereas the content of charged amino acids in the GM-T and EG-T was relatively higher than those of trypsins from temperate-zone fish, tropical-zone fish and mammals. Moreover, the GM-T catalyzed synthesis of Nα-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-alanyl-l-alanine-p-nitroanilide (Nα-Boc-l-Ala-l-Ala-pNA) has been studied by using Nα-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-alanine-p-guanidinophenyl ester [Nα-Boc-l-Ala-OpGu (inverse substrate)] as acyl donor and l-alanine-p-nitroanilide (l-Ala-pNA) as acyl acceptor, respectively.