|
Acid phosphatase from
snail heamolymph: a cheap and convenient source of enzyme
for kinetic parameters determination
Femi Kayode Agboola* and Adeyinka Afolayan
Department of Biochemistry,
Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220001, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author.
E-mail:
fkagbo@oauife.edu.ng.
Tel: +2348034738078.
Accepted
14th February, 2008 |
|
The
study of enzymes occupies a very important position in
biological, medical and industrial research. Also, the
satisfactory performance of an enzyme assay provides a good
introduction to biochemical techniques. This experiment
presents a good introductory project to students for the
estimation of the kinetic parameters of an enzyme. The
spectrophotometric/colorimetric assay of acid phosphatase is
very simple with a readily available substrate, p-nitrophenyl
phosphate, which can easily be purchased, and other common
laboratory reagents; sodium hydroxide, sodium acetate and
ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA). The snail is cheap
and the heamolymph collected required no hemolysis and/or
centrifugation. The assay method does not require an
additional reagent for colour development. Earlier acid
phosphatase had been found to be present in a relatively
high activity in the heamolymph of the giant African snail,
Archachatina marginata, and is highly specific for p-nitrophenyl
phosphate.
Key
words:
Acid phosphatase, snail, Archachatina marginata,
heamolymph, p-nitrophenyl phosphate. |
