REACTION OF LENTIL PROTEINASE INHIBITORS WITH HUMAN AND BOVINE TRYPSIN AND CHYMOTRYPSIN

The two main trypsin-chymotrypsin isoinhibitors previously purified from lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.), LCI-1 and LCI-4, inhibited one mol of human trypsin (1.05 and 1.00), more than one mol of bovine trypsin (1.53 and 1.38) and human chymotrypsin (1.70 and 1.43) as well as less than one mol of bovine chymotrypsin (0.62 and 0.54, respectively) per mol of inhibitor. Complex formation, together with chemical and enzymatic modification studies, showed that they were Bowman-Birk inhibitors with two independent reactive sites. One of these sites, mainly reacting with trypsin, contained arginine and bound tightly to bovine trypsin, less tightly to human trypsin and loosely to human chymotrypsin. The other reactive site, preferring chymotrypsin, contained tyrosine and bound tightly to human chymotrypsin, less tightly to bovine chymotrypsin and loosely to bovine trypsin. The amounts of bound enzyme exceeding one mol per mol of inhibitor reacted with the “wrong” sites: bovine trypsin with the chymotrypsin-reactive and human chymotrypsin with the trypsin-reactive one. The much higher inhibition of human chymotrypsin compared to that of bovine chymotrypsin resulted from a combination of two effects: the additional binding of human chymotrypsin at the “wrong” reactive site and the weak binding of the bovine chymotrypsin.