[Mechanism of ovalbumin proteolysis]

Papain, thermitase and pepsin at pH 4.0 hydrolyze ovalbumin to low molecular weight peptides. Simultaneously a stepwise formation of several short fragments resulting in the appearance of a group of high molecular weight fragments and a subsequent splitting of the latter into two fragments of intermediate molecular mass takes place. The fragments are retained in the molecule by noncovalent bonds. The fragments formed under the action of different enzymes are similar in size, which is suggestive of splitting in the same narrow segments of the ovalbumin polypeptide chain. The results obtained indicate that during proteolysis of the native ovalbumin two extreme types of the proteolysis--the one-by-one and zipper types--occur in parallel, while the course of the latter is largely determined by the ovalbumin structure.