Partial Purification and Characterization of Superoxide Dismutase from Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Fruit

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) from tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) fruit was purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation, Sephadex G-100 and DEAE-cellulose column chromatographies. A 22 fold purification and an overall yield of 44% were achieved. The purified enzyme was a homodimer with Mr 37.1 kDa and subunit Mr 18.2 kDa as judged by SDS-PAGE. SOD showed $K_{m}$ values of 25 ${\times}$ 10$^{-6}$ M and 1.7 ${\times}$ 10$^{-6}$ M for nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) and riboflavin as substrates, respectively. The enzyme was thermostable upto 5$0^{\circ}C$ and exhibited pH optima of 7.8. The effect of metal ions and some other compounds on enzyme activity was studied. $Co^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ were found to enhance relative enzyme activities by 27 % and 73 %, respectively, while M $n^{2+}$ inhibited the SOD activity by 64%. However, $Ca^{2+}$ and C $u^{2+}$ had no effect on enzyme activity. Other compounds like $H_2O$$_2$ and Na $N_3$ inhibited enzymatic activities by 60% and 32%, respectively, while sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), chloroform plus ethanol and $\beta$-mercaptoethanol had no effect on the activity of SOD. of SOD.