A Proteinase from Germinating Barley

A proteinase was purified from germinated barley (green malt from Hordeum vulgare L. cv Morex) by acidic extraction, ammonium sulfate fractionation and successive chromatographies on CM-cellulose, hemoglobin sepharose, Sephadex G-75 and organomercurial agarose columns. The overall purification and final recovery were 290-fold and 7.5%, respectively. The purified enzyme was homogeneous on analytical gel electrophoresis, yielding a single protein associated with protease activity. An apparent molecular weight of about 20 kilodaltons was estimated for the native enzyme from gel filtration. SDS-gel electrophoresis revealed a single polypeptide of about 30 kilodaltons. The optimum pH for the hydrolysis of hemoglobin was around 3.8. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by leupeptin but was insensitive to phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, indicating that it was a cysteine proteinase. It hydrolyzed several large proteins from various origins. The ability of the enzyme to digest barley storage proteins in vitro was examined using SDS-gel electrophoresis. The hydrolysis patterns obtained showed that the enzyme rapidly hydrolyzed the large hordein polypeptides into relatively small fragments. The results of this study suggest that this 30 kilodalton enzyme is one of the predominant cysteine proteinases secreted into the starchy endosperm during barley germination and that it plays a major role in the mobilization of storage proteins.