Presenter Information

Sally Hess, Liberty UniversityFollow

Category

Poster - Basic

Description

An important enzyme used by wastewater facilities and textile plants is peroxygenase. Commonly, horseradish peroxidase (an enzyme similar to peroxygenase) is used because it is highly active. While searching for an alternative peroxidase, it was discovered that the seeds of jalapenos and habaneros expressed a novel activity in a fluorophenol assay quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Since there is limited research into the peroxidase activity of hot pepper seeds, the novel activity warranted further investigation. It was observed that the activity of the enzyme was undisrupted by the presence of methanol, but that quenching with glutathione not only denatured the enzyme, but converted the unique product seen in the HPLC chromatogram to a new product. The three characteristics that were investigated for the novel peroxygenase activity were reaction time determination, long-term stability in solutions of different hydrophobicity, and exploratory HPLC to discover the secondary product peak in the presence of glutathione. The optimal reaction time was 2 hours, while it seems that jalapeno peroxygenase is most stable in 1% Tween 20, maintaining standard levels of activity for 5-6 weeks. Some progress has been made in finding a secondary peak, but future research should focus more intently on quantifying the secondary peak so that liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) can be used. This information would identify what type of peroxygenase is present, given the structure of the new product.

Comments

Undergraduate

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Apr 17th, 1:00 PM

Characterizing Novel Peroxygenase Activity Found in Fruit Seeds of the Genus Capsicum

Poster - Basic

An important enzyme used by wastewater facilities and textile plants is peroxygenase. Commonly, horseradish peroxidase (an enzyme similar to peroxygenase) is used because it is highly active. While searching for an alternative peroxidase, it was discovered that the seeds of jalapenos and habaneros expressed a novel activity in a fluorophenol assay quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Since there is limited research into the peroxidase activity of hot pepper seeds, the novel activity warranted further investigation. It was observed that the activity of the enzyme was undisrupted by the presence of methanol, but that quenching with glutathione not only denatured the enzyme, but converted the unique product seen in the HPLC chromatogram to a new product. The three characteristics that were investigated for the novel peroxygenase activity were reaction time determination, long-term stability in solutions of different hydrophobicity, and exploratory HPLC to discover the secondary product peak in the presence of glutathione. The optimal reaction time was 2 hours, while it seems that jalapeno peroxygenase is most stable in 1% Tween 20, maintaining standard levels of activity for 5-6 weeks. Some progress has been made in finding a secondary peak, but future research should focus more intently on quantifying the secondary peak so that liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) can be used. This information would identify what type of peroxygenase is present, given the structure of the new product.

 

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