Characterization of Potato Polyphenol Oxidase Purified by p-aminobenzoic Acid-sepharose Affinity Column

Polyphenol oxidases (PPO) are copper-containing enzymes responsible for tissue browning in fruits and vegetables including potato, apple and pears. Although these enzymes have been studied for many years, their physiological roles in plants are not yet clear. Therefore, these enzymes need to be purified to characterize further from potato tubers. The classical methods used for the purification of PPO involve several steps. So in this study, we developed a one-step chromatography process for the potato tuber PPO purification. After removal of salts from dissolved ammonium sulfate precipitates of potato tuber extracts using Sephadex-G50 gel filtration, affinity chromatography was carried out on NHS-activated Sepharose 4B using p-aminobenzoic acid as a ligand. The purified enzyme was confirmed by silver staining and a zymogram. The optimum temperature and pH for the purified potato tuber PPO were 15℃ and pH 6.0, respectively. The results obtained in the present study will aid to evaluate PPO from various fruits and vegetables.