II. GENERAL PROPERTIES

John H. Northrop ¹ and M. Kunitz ¹

¹ From the Laboratories of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Princeton, N. J.

A method is described for isolating a crystalline protein of high tryptic activity from beef pancreas. The protein has constant proteolytic activity and optical activity under various conditions and no indication of further fractionation could be obtained. The loss in activity corresponds to the decrease in native protein when the protein is denatured by heat, digested by pepsin, or hydrolyzed in dilute alkali.

The enzyme digests casein, gelatin, edestin, and denatured hemoglobin, but not native hemoglobin. It accelerates the coagulation of blood but has little effect on the clotting of milk. It digests peptone prepared by the action of pepsin on casein, edestin or gelatin.

The extent of the digestion of gelatin caused by this enzyme is the same as that caused by crystalline pepsin and is approximately equivalent to tripling the number of carboxyl groups present in the solution.

The activity of the preparation is not increased by enterokinase.

The molecular weight by osmotic pressure measure is about 34,000.

The diffusion coefficient in saturated magnesium sulfate at 6°C. is 0.020 ±0.001 cm.² per day, corresponding to a molecular radius of 2.6 x 10^–7 cm.

The isoelectric point is probably between pH 7.0 and pH 8.0.

The optimum pH for the digestion of casein is from 8.0–9.0.

The optimum stability is at pH 1.8.

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