Amylases selective inactivation

The Perkin-Elmer model 191 grain amylase analyser has potential usefulness to the cereal industry for measurement of amylase.For example, it can satisfactorily measure the potency of fungal a-amylase supplements, With amylo-pectin as substrate, it can measure various concentrations of a- or )3-amylase. The analyser cannot, however, differentiate between the effects of these two enzymes, which are both normally present in cereals. This limits its present usefulness, particularly for measurement of a-amylase. Selective inactivation with HgClj or heat-treatment cannot guarantee that /3-amylase is completely destroyed or that a-amylase has not been affected. Manufacturer refinements to the prototype method and instrument such as developing a /3-limit dextrin substrate and increasing the sensitivity of the analyser may ultimately provide a simple, rapid assay of a-amylase. 

If amylases are to be used as tools for the detailed study of the breakdown and structure of their substrates it is obviously important to separate them from other enzymes and from other naturally associated constituents which may influence the results. It is then equally important to study the properties of the purified amylase and to supply it with the chemical environment necessary to protect it from inactivation and to enable it to act efficiently. With beta amylases this ideal has often been approached. Beta amylases from several sources have been prepared by selective inactivation of other enzymes that accompany them in nature23 and highly active products have been obtained by extensive purification.20 24-26 Balls and his associates have recently reported the crystallization of beta amylase from sweet potato.27... 

It is important to note that no evidence of maltase activity was found in the amylase preparations even when the highest concentrations used in these comparisons were allowed to react for twenty-four hours with one per cent maltose under the conditions for the hydrolysis of starch. Similarly, no evidence was obtained for the presence of any other contaminating or extraneous carbohydrases in the amylase preparations. Partial inactivation of the amylase under a number of different conditions failed to give any evidence of selective inactivation such as might be expected if more than one enzyme were present. The substrates used for measuring the activity of the partially inactivated amylase were starch and starch hydrolyzates that had already been extensively (58) J. Blom, Agnete Bak and B. Braae, Z. physiol. Chem., 250, 104 (1937). 

Cellulases can also be eliminated fiom a mixture with xylanases by selective thermal inactivation. Cellulases are more thermolabile than xylanases in tiie cdlulolytic systems of the fungus Y-94 (79), T. harzianum 20), and Tkermoascus aurantiacus (77), but not in the Trickoderma reesei system (Biely, P. and Vrsanska, M., Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, unpublished results). Since cellulase thoixud inactivation causes a significant loss of xylanase also, a more convenient way to eliminate cellulase activity is by selective chemical or biological inhibition or inactivation. There appear, however, to be no reports on the existence of natural inhibitors that would be specific for cellulases. Such inhibitors of amylases and pectinases are known to occur in plants (27). 

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