Casein micelles chymosin effects

The Daily Industiy. The first step in cheese manufacture is the coagulation of milk. Coagulation can be divided into two distinct phases, enzymatic and the non-enzymatic. In the primary enzymatic phase a proteol ic enzyme such as chymosin (rennet), or less effectively, pepsin, carries out an extremely specific and limited proteolysis, cleaving a phenylalanine-methionine bond of /c-casein, making the casein micelle metastabie. In the second, non-enzymatic phase, the... 

Shalabi, S. I. and Wheelock, J. V. 1977. Effect of sulphydryl blocking agents on the primary phase of chymosin action on heated casein micelles and heated milk. J. Dairy Res. 44, 351-355. 

Reddy, D., Payens, T. A. and Brown, R. J. 1986. Effect of pepstatin on the chymosin-triggered coagulation of casein micelles. J. Dairy Sci. 69 (Suppl. 1), 72. 

Walstra, P., Bloomfield, V.A., Wei, G.J., and Jenness, R. (1981). Effect of chymosin action on the hydrodynamic diameter of casein micelles. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 669, 258-259. 

Thus, K-casein in its native stabilizing role exists, probably as small disulphide linked polymers, bound to the micellar surface (the ill-defined boundary between the hydrophobic interior of the micelle and the aqueous phase). C-terminal polypeptides (61 residues) of the protein project from the surface into the solution. In this position, the macropeptide moiety of the protein is conformationally free (H), constrained only by its interactions with its neighbours (J ), and the bond 105-106 of the protein is held in a particularly advantageous position for attack by enzymes such as chymosin ( ). The importance of this will be apparent when emulsions stabilized by K-casein are being discussed. The enzymic action has a relatively small but detectable effect on the hydrodynamic diameters of the particles, and a large effect on their electrophoretic mobilities, which decrease by between one-third and one-half, depending on the solution conditions ( ). 

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