Sandbox 39

Papain

Introduction

Papain (9PAP), also known as papaya proteinase I, is an enzyme found in unripe papaya fruit. A cysteine protease, it has been used to break down tough muscle fibers, and hence is often found in powdered meat tenderizers. It is collected from the fruit by scoring its skin and allowing the "sap" to seem out. The sap is then dried and purified.

Function

As a cysteine protease, Papain utilizes a nucleophilic cysteine thiol as part of its catalytic triad. Papain's Cys-25 is deprotonated by its His-159. The now nucleophilic Cys-25 attacks the carbonyl carbon of the peptide backbone, forming an acyl enzyme intermediate in which the peptide's amino terminal is free. Also in this step, His-159 is returned to its deprotonated form. The intermediate is then deacylated by a water molecule, and it releases the carboxyl terminal of the peptide to produce the product and regenerate the active enzyme. This entire mechanism is shown below: ^[1]]]

Composition and Structure of Papain

Proteins only consist of certain elements: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Enzymes' primary structures allow them to fold optimally and interact with their substrates maximally in order to efficiently catalyze biological reactions. The shows carbon atoms outlined in grey, oxygen atoms in red, nitrogen atoms in blue, and sulfur atoms in yellow. In addition, the entirety of the secondary structure of papain can be traced from the The red end begins the protein at the N-terminus, and can be traced through the colors of the rainbow to the purple end at the C-terminus.