• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.92-97
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• 1988

Cysteinylglycinase was partially purified from Proteus mirabilis by consecutive procedure. The specific activity was increased about 16-fold to that of cell-free extract. The enzyme was found rather unstable on ammonium sulfate precipitation ann the precipitated enzyme protein became partially insoluble during dialysis. The precipitated enzyme was found to be solubilized by treatment of 4% Triton X-100 effectiviely, The optimum temperature and pH of the enzyme activity were 35$^{\circ}C$ and 7.3, respectively. After heat treatment of the enzyme at 5$0^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, it lost the activity to 70%. The enzyme was stable at pH 7.0-8.0. The molecular weight of the cysteinylglycinase was found to be about 190,000 by Sephadex G-150 gel filtration. The enzyme was activated by the addition of Mn$^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ ions. The maximal activation was obtained in preincubation with $Mg^{2+}$ ion for 30 min. The enzyme catalyzed the hydrolysis of various dipeptides and tripeptides. The Km and Vmax values for cysteinylglycine were 1.60 mM and 0.24 m unit/ mg, respectively.