Purification of Two Novel Antimicrobial Peptides from Pyloric Caeca of the Starfish Asterina pectinifera

Isolation and characteristics of trypsin from pyloric ceca of the starfish Asterina pectinifera.

Trypsin was purified from pyloric ceca of the starfish Asterina Pectinifera by ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration, and cation-exchange chromatography. Final enzyme preparation was nearly homogeneous in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and its molecular weight was estimated as approximately 28000. Optimum pH and temperature of A. pectinifera trypsin for hydro...

Isolation and characteristics of phospholipase A2 from the pyloric ceca of the starfish Asterina pectinifera

Characterization of a novel hatching enzyme purified from starfish Asterina pectinifera

Hatching enzyme is a protease which can degrade the membrane of egg. In this study, a hatching enzyme was purified from starfish (Asterina pectinifera) with 6.34 fold of purification rate, 5.04 % of yield, and 73.87 U/mg of specific activity. The molecular weight of starfish hatching enzyme was 86 kDa, which was reduced to 62 kDa after removal of N-linked oligosaccharides. The optimal pH and te...

L-proline Transport Systems of Starfish Pyloric Caeca

Purified brush-border membrane vesicles (BBMV) of starfish [Pycnopodia helianthoides (Brandt)] pyloric caecal epithelium were prepared by magnesium precipitation in order to characterize the possible role of this organ in amino acid transport. L-[H]proline uptake by these vesicles was Na-dependent and greater at pH7.5 than at pH5.5. L-Pipecolate was a competitive inhibitor of L-proline influx i...

Studies on dwarf larvae developed from isolated blastomeres of the starfish. Asterina pectinifera.

Not only a whole denuded egg, but also blastomeres isolated from 2-, 4- and 8-cell starfish embryos developed into morphologically normal, but dwarf bipinnariae, the sizes of which were roughly proportionate to that of the respective original blastomeres. Some of the blastomeres isolated from the 16-cell stage were also capable of developing into the larval stage. All isolated blastomeres divid...