The use of a highly sensitive electrophoretic method to compare the proteinases of trichomonads

A highly sensitive electrophoretic method involving gelatin-containing polyacrylamide gels has been used to analyse trichomonad proteinases. Multiple forms, optimally active at pH 5–6, were present in all four species examined, but the species could be distinguished from one another by both quantitative and qualitative differences. The intestinal parasites, Trichomitus batrachorum and Pentatrichomonas hominis, had lower specific activities than the urogenital parasites, Trichomonas vaginalis and Trichomonas foetus, and, in the case of P. hominis, there were fewer enzyme forms. The high activity proteinases of Tritrichomonas foetus had low apparent molecular weights (