Abstract
IN the course of studies on the digestion of wool by insects we have examined the clothes moth for the presence of reductases of disulphide bonds. Enzyme preparations were made by cold homogenization of whole larvæ of the clothes moth followed by centrifugation at 30,000 g for 30 min. and dialysis of the supernatant for 20 hr. against cold 0.05 M tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane-hydrochloric acid buffer at pH 7.3. Cystine reductase activity was demonstrated by measuring the decrease in absorption at 340 mµ of reduced triphosphopyridine nucleotide (California Foundation) using anærobic cuvettes in a Beckman DU spectrophotometer. Also the production of SH-groups was measured by a modified Grunert and Phillips colorimetric nitroprusside method1, and confirmed by titration with phenyl mercuric nitrate.
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POWNING, R., IRZYKIEWICZ, H. A Reduced Triphosphopyridine Nucleotide-linked Cystine Reductase in the Clothes Moth, Tineola bisselliella (Humm). Nature 184, 1230–1231 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1841230a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1841230a0
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