Substrate specificity of collagenolytic proteases from the king crab Paralithodes camtschatica.

Substrate specificity of two collagenolytic proteases from the king crab Paralithodes camtschatica has been studied. Both proteases are shown to hydrolyze effectively type I and III collagens, gelatin and fibrinogen. The variety of products formed during the enzymatic hydrolysis of the proteins appeared to be different for crab proteases A and C. Studies on peptide hydrolysis demonstrated that protease A cleaves preferably peptide bonds with Arg and Lys as carbonyl components, while protease C prefers hydrophobic amino acids. Kinetic constants of hydrolysis for low molecular weight substrates in the presence of crab proteases have been determined. This allowed us to characterize collagenolytic protease A as a trypsin-like protease. By contrast, collagenolytic protease C was classified as chymotrypsin-like protease although this protease and bovine chymotrypsin are not completely similar. Collagenase substrates Pz-Pro-Leu-Gly-Pro-D-Arg and Z-Gly-Pro-Ala-Gly-Pro-Ala were found to be resistant to both crab proteases.