Photosensitized inactivation of stem bromelain. Oxidation of histidine, methionine, and tryptophan residues.

Pineapple stem bromelain was photooxidized in the presence of Methylene Blue used as a sensitizer. The essential sulfhydryl group of the enzyme protein rapidly became inaccessible to react with 5,5'-dithiobis(nitrobenzoic acid), but the reactivity was readily regained to the original level upon treatment with dithiothreitol. Even after such reduction, the photooxidized enzyme showed a markedly decreased hydrolytic activity on casein. Spectral examination revealed that the oxidized enzyme had tyrosine residues intact. Amino acid analysis showed significant decreases in histidine, ethionine, and tryptophan residues. Photoinactivation occurred in a similar manner also in the presence of tetrathionate which reversibly blocked the essential sulfhydryl group. It is concluded that the irreversible photoinactivation of stem bromelain must be related to the oxidation of histidine, methionine, and tryptophan residues. When the photooxidation was carried out a different pH values ranging from 4.0 to 8.3, the inactivation and the decrease in histidine content were found to be markedly pH dependent. Thus, the photooxidation experiment provided a method for directly measuring the apparent pKa of the ionization of the single histidine residue in stem bromelain. Apparent pKa values of 6.4 and 7.1 were obtained for the histidine imidazole in the absence and in presence of tetrathionate, respectively. In view of these normal pKa values for an imidazole, a mechanism of ionization of the active-site group in a plant thiol proteinase is proposed, in which the validity of mechanism involving a close electronic interaction between histidine and cysteine residues is seriously questioned.