Detection of Carbohydrase in Paper Electrophoresis

Abstract

THE task of testing and localizing enzymes in a protein mixture subjected to paper electrophoresis is a tedious one. This is particularly true in a fractionation study where the number of tests may be numerous. During the course of such an investigation of the various carbohydrases in an Aspergillus niger fermentation, it became necessary to employ a rapid qualitative test for the detection of these enzymes. Keilin and Hartree¹ have reported that glucose oxidase (notatin) can be successfully used for the quantitative assay of various carbohydrases. Monod and Torriani² employed notatin to determine glucose in their studies of amylomaltase. Recently, Whistler et al. ³ showed that D-glucose in corn syrups can also be quantitatively estimated by using notatin. The latter enzyme oxidizes glucose to yield two products—gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide.