Effect of oxidation of methionine residues in chicken ovoinhibitor on its inhibitory activities against trypsin, chymotrypsin, and elastase.

Oxidation of methionine residues of chicken ovoinhibitor with N-chlorosuccinimide resulted in a selective loss of its inhibitory activities. While trypsin inhibiting activity was not affected at all, half of the chymotrypsin-inhibiting activity and all of the elastase inhibiting activity were lost. Electrophoretic and affinity chromatography studies indicated that the 50% loss of the chymotrypsin-inhibiting activity resulted from the inactivation of one of its two chymotrypsin-inhibiting sites rather than from a decrease in the binding constants of both sites. Oxidation of ovoinhibitor-chymotrypsin and ovoinhibitor-elastase complexes with excess of N-chlorosuccinimide indicated that the complex formation in each case protected the site that binds the enzyme which participated in the complex, but did not protect the site that binds the other enzyme. Quantitative estimation of the number of oxidized methionine residues in the ovoinhibitor isolated from the complexes has shown that in each complex about one methionine residue was protected from oxidation. Nitrophenyl-sulfenylation of the single tryptophan residue of ovoinhibitor did not affect its inhibitory activities at all.