PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF TRYPSIN FROM AN ENTOMOPATHOGEN, NOMURAEA-RILEYI NRRL-13755

Nomuraea rileyi isolate NRRL-13755 produced a large amount of trypsin enzyme when cultured on basal salt medium containing 1% (w/v) gelatin. The trypsin was purified nearly 60-fold, with a recovery of about 13% of the initial activity from the culture supernatant. This protease exhibited a remarkably high specific activity of nearly 370,000 IU/mg protein. The native molecular weight was estimated by gel permeation chromatography to be 30 kDa, and the subunit molecular weight was determined to be about 30 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The pH and temperature optima were determined to be 8.5 and 35-degrees-C, respectively. With a relative trypsin activity of 100%, this purified preparation showed about 10% chymoelastase and nearly 50% chymotrypsin activity. Metal-chelating agents such as EDTA and EGTA at 2 mm inhibited the enzyme activity by 40%, whereas N-carbobenzoxy-glyCyl-L-phenylalaninamide (CBZ-gly-phe-NH2) (2 mm) and DTT (2 mm) had no effect on activity. Trypsin inhibitor from turkey egg-white at 100 mug/ml strongly inhibited the enzyme activity.