| Proteinases from hepatopancreas (HP) and gastric juice (GJ) from wild and cultured red octopus (Octopus maya) were characterized. Hepatopancreas assays revealed optimal activity at pH 4, 9-10 and 10 for wild and pH 3, 8, and 9, for cultured octopuses, for total proteinases, trypsin and chymotrypsin, respectively. In the gastric juice, maximum activity was recorded at pH 6, 8, and 7 for total proteinases, trypsin, and chymotrypsin, respectively for both wild and cultured octopus. A reduction on enzyme activity of 70 and 20% was observed in HP and GJ extracts, respectively when protease inhibitor Pepstatin A was used. That result suggests that the main proteases in the HP were aspartic acid proteinases type (possibly Cathepsin D) and some of them were... |
