Development of proteolytic enzymes in growing papaya fruit

Abstract

Latex samples, collected from the same papaya fruit at fixed time intervals until the fruit ripened, were freeze-dried. The yield of latex, total nitrogen and protein composition, as well as proteolytic activities, were determined. The latex samples, tapped from fruit during its development, were chromatographed on hydroxylapatite: the resulting chromatograms show the change in proteinase content with fruit development. The overall proteolytic activity in the latex of young fruit is noticeably less than in more mature fruit.