Purification and Characterization of Hemolymph Juvenile Hormone Esterase from the Cricket, <i>Gryllus assimilis</i>

Juvenile hormone esterase (JHE) from the serum of the cricket, Gryllus assimilis, was purifi ed to homogeneity in a four-step procedure involving polyethylene glycol precipitation, hydrophobic interaction FPLC, and ion exchange FPLC. This procedure could be completed in 4 days and resulted in a greater than 900-fold purifi cation with greater than 30% recovery. The purifi ed enzyme exhibited a single band on a silver-stained SDS PAGE gel and had an apparent subunit molecular mass of 52 kDa. The native subunit molecular mass, determined by gel permeation FPLC, was 98 kDa, indicating that JHE from Gryllus assimilis is a dimer of two identical or similar subunits. The turnover number of the purifi ed enzyme (1.41 s–1), KM(JH-III) (84 ± 12 nM) of nearly-purifi ed enzyme, and kcat /KM (1.67 × 107 s–1 M–1) were similar to values reported for other well-established lepidopteran and dipteran JHEs. JHE from Gryllus assimilis was strongly inhibited by the JHE transition-state analogue OTFP (octylthio-1,1,1-trifl uoro-2-propanone; I50 = 10–7 M) and by DFP (diisopropyl fl uorophosphate; I50 = 10–7 M). The shapes of the inhibition profi les suggest the existence of multiple binding sites for these inhibitors or multiple JHEs that differ in inhibition. Isoelectric focusing separated the purifi ed protein into 4 isoforms with pIs ranging from 4.7–4.9. N-terminal amino acid sequences (11–20 amino acids) of the isoforms differed from each other in 1–4 positions, suggesting that the isoforms are products of the same or similar genes. Homogeneously purifi ed JHE hydrolyzed α-napthyl esters, did not exhibit any detectable acetylcholinesterase, acid phosphatase, or aminopeptidase activity, and exhibited only very weak alkaline phosphatase activity. JHE exhibited a low (11 μM) KM for long-chain α-naphthyl esters, indicating that JHE may have physiological roles other than the hydrolysis of JH-III. Purifi cation of JHE represents a key step in our attempts to identify the molecular causes of genetically-based variation in JHE activity in G. assimilis. This represents the fi rst homogeneous purifi cation of JHE from a hemimetabolous insect.