Isolation and characterization of camel pepsins

Camel (Camelus dromedarius) pepsins were precipitated from the extract of the fundic gastric mucosa by ammonium sulfate between 35 and 80% saturation. DEAE--cellulose chromatography of this fraction produced two isoenzymes, I and II, which were further purified to homogeneity on sephadex G-100. Their Km with N-acetyl-L-phenylalanyl-diiodotyrosine were 0.10 and 0.90 mM, and their molecular weights which were determined on sodium dodecylsulfate gel electrophoresis exhibited 35,500 and 34,700, respectively. The two pepsins were essentially free of carbohydrates, but contained 0.3 and 1.0 mol of organic phosphate per 1 mol of protein, respectively. The apparent mobilities of the phospho- and dephosphoforms of each pepsin were indifferent in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at pH 8.9. The N-terminal residues of pepsins I and II were found to be alanine and leucine, respectively. Pepsin I was inactivated at a faster rate than that of pepsin II at pH 8 and 0 degrees C, and at pH 7.5 and 37 degrees C; but both were denatured under these conditions. The properties of these enzymes are compared with those of other mammalian and avian pepsins.