Galactose oxidase of Polyporus circinatus: a copper enzyme.

In 1959, Cooper et al. (1) described the isolation of an enzyme from Polyporus circinatus Fr. which catalyzed the oxidation of galactose by molecular oxygen. MTe have previously described a procedure for the purification of such an enzyme from culture filtrat,es and have shown the reaction product to be D-g&CtOhexodialdose, oxidation occurring at the C-6 rather than the C-l position (2). The present paper is concerned with further improvement in production of the enzyme, which has now been crystallized, and the determination of the molecular weight and identification as a copper-containing metalloenzyme.