Hysteresis and positive cooperativity of iceberg lettuce polyphenol oxidase

A kinetic study of the diphenolase activity of latent polyphenol oxidase (PPO), purified from Iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa L), revealed a sigmoid relationship between the reaction rate and the substrate concentration with a high Hill coefficient (n(H) = 3.8). This positive cooperativity had not been previously described for any PPO. Furthermore, the enzyme showed a lag phase in the expression of this activity, suggesting a hysteretic nature of the enzyme. The kinetic behavior, the latency and the lag phase varied at different steps of the purification process. PPO showed hyperbolic or cooperative kinetics depending on the pH assay and the sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) concentration. Substrate-induced slow conformational change of the oligomeric enzyme is suggested. The conformational change would be toward a more active enzyme form with higher affinity for the substrate and favoured by acid pH and SDS.