Tyrosinase in a melanosome is known to be inactivated during melanin formation in vivo, and a similar inactivation was observed in vitro when melanosomes isolated from Harding Passey mouse melanoma were incubated with dopa. Tyrosinase, whether particle bound or in soluble form, was inactivated during the dopa-tyrosinase reaction and the reduction rate of its activity was proportional to the reaction time. Tyrosinase inactivation also occurred when ascorbic acid was added to the reaction system; in which dopaquinone, an oxidation product of dopa which is immediately converted back to dopa by ascorbic acid thus preventing melanin formation. When 14C-dopa or 14C-ascorbic acid were added to the reaction mixture, these radioactive substances were not recovered from the inactivated enzyme protein fraction after incubation. In addition this inactivation of tyrosinase by dopa was not inhibited by any of: 1.4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, scavenger for singlet oxygen; D-mannitol, that for hydroxyl radical; superoxide dismutase, that for superoxide anion; and catalase, cleavaging enzyme for hydrogen peroxide. Thus the inactivation of tyrosinase appears to be due to neither these radicals, nor reaction products from dopa or ascorbic acid, but to changes in the enzyme itself.

Trehalase from the bean-shaped accessory glands of the male mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, was purified by acid treatment, with subsequent chromatography on columns of DEAE-cellulofine and Sephacryl S-300. The molecular masses of the native and the denatured forms were estimated to be 43 and 62 kDa by gel filtration and SDS-PAGE, respectively, an indication that the trehalase may be composed of a single polypeptide. The optimum pH of the reaction catalyzed by trehalase was 5.6-5.8. The Km for trehalose was 4.4 mmol.1(-1). Immunohistochemical experiments with trehalase-specific antiserum showed that the enzyme was localized in one specific type of secretory cell in the bean-shaped accessory gland epithelium and within the semisolid secretory mass that was a precursor to the wall of spermatophore. SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting analysis revealed the presence of a polypeptide of about 62 kDa in the spermatophore. Immunohistochemical observations showed that the trehalase was located at the outgrowth in the anterior portion of the spermatophore. When a fresh spermatophore was immersed in phosphate-buffered saline it discharged sperm in the same manner as in the bursa copulatrix of the female. Before the rupture of the expanded bulb of the spermatophore, almost all of the trehalase had dissolved in the phosphate-buffered saline. The addition of validoxylamine A to the saline, a specific inhibitor of trehalase, did not affect the expansion and evacuation of the spermatophore. These results demonstrate that trehalase, synthesized by a specific type of secretory cell in the bean-shaped accessory gland epithelium, is actively passed into the lumen of the bean-shaped accessory gland and then incorporated into the spermatophore. Trehalase appears to be one of the structural proteins of the spermatophore, although the possibility can not yet be completely ruled out that the trehalase-trehalose system functions for the nourishment and/or activation of the sperm in the bursa copulatrix of the female.

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Km values of tyrosinase solubilized from melanosomes and microsomes from Harding-Passey mouse melanomas, consisting of rough and smooth surface membranes were found to be O.6mM and 1.3 mM, respectively. The maximum reaction velocities of the two enzymes from the melanosomes and microsomes were similar. In comparison with the tyrosine level in human plasma, reported to be approximately O.06mM, the Km value for microsomal tyrosinase is very high. Therefore it is likely that the tyrosinase reaction occurs at a extremely low level in the smooth and rough membranes of the melanocyte. This may be one possible reason why melanin formation does not take place in vivo in rough and smooth surface membranes in the melanocytes, despite the fact that tyrosinase activity has been detected in microsomes in vitro after isolation from melanoma tissue.

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