Sawada M T, Someno T, Hoshi M, Sawada H
Department of Life Science, Faculty of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan.
Dev Biol. 1992 Apr;150(2):414-8. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(92)90252-c.
A protease involved in oocyte maturation of a starfish, Asterina pectinifera, was explored. Trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like activities of the 650-kDa protease in oocyte extract were revealed to increase more than twice under the influence of 1-methyladenine before germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) during maturation. The inhibitory potencies of leupeptin and its five analogs against the chymotrypsin-like activity, but not the trypsin-like activity, of this protease was well in accord with those against GVBD (Takagi Sawada et al. (1989). Dev. Biol. 133, 609-612). These results indicate that the chymotrypsin-like activity of the 650-kDa protease (most probably 20 S proteasome) plays a key role in starfish oocyte maturation.
