The purification and properties of a tumor inhibitory L-asparaginase from SeOratia marcescens are described. The following properties of the enzyme were examined: kinetics of the enzyme reaction, catalytic activity as a function of pH, boundary sedimentation velocity, electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel, immunoelectrophoresis against homologous and heterologous antisera, immunodiffusion, blood clearance rate in mice, and inhibition of the 6C3HED lymphoma in C3H mice. Complete regression of this tumor was obtained with a smaller dose of the enzyme from S. marcescens than with enzyme from Escherichia coli. The reason for this difference was not evident from a comparison of several properties of the two enzymes.Eazyme assays. Routine L-asparaginase assays were conducted by a modified method based on that of Meister et al. (20). Portions (1 to 100 Mliters) of enzyme solution were added to 0.05 M tris(hydroxmethyl)aminomethane (Tris)-hydrochloride buffer (pH 7.4) to give a final volume of 1.5 ml. The reaction was initiated by the addition of 0.5 ml of 0.04 M L-asparagine in the same buffer and conducted at 37 C in a reciprocal water bath shaker. The reaction was stopped by the addition of 0.1 ml of 1.5 M trichloroacetic acid. If necessary, the mixture was centrifuged to remove precipitated proteins. Ammonia released in the reaction was determined by the addition of Nessler's reagent to the diluted supernatant fluid and, after 15 min, observing the absorbancy at 500 nm. Our studies on enzyme kinetics utilized a reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH)-dependent coupled assay for ammonia producing systems (15). NADH and ammonia are required in equimolar amounts for the synthesis of glutamate from a-ketoglutarate by glutamic dehydrogenase. The rate of ammonia production from L-asparaginase may be calculated from the rate of NADH oxidation 578 on July 31, 2020 by guest http://jb.asm.org/ Downloaded from on July 31, 2020 by guest