Oliveira, E.M. Mesenchymal stem cell differentiation in hepatocytes and development of pre-clinic model of hepatic fibrosis for cellular therapy assays 2013. 120 pages. PhD Thesis-Graduate Programme in Biochemistry.
Because of adverse effects caused by insecticides in environment and in animals and humans, new methods for insect control are necessary. Knowledge on insect digestive physiology may be instrumental in this direction, as the gut is the major interface between insect and its environment. Our work involves the purification and characterization of a digestive carboxypeptidase and a digestive dipeptidase from Tenebrio molitor. Those enzymes comprise the class of insect digestive enzymes less studied. Distribution studies showed that T. molitor dipeptidase and carboxypeptidase are more active in the midgut content. The purification of T. molitor dipeptidase and carboxypeptidase was attained using a combination of anion-exchange chromatographies and gel filtration. The optimum pH of dipeptidase is 7.6 and the carboxypeptidase is 7.4. The kinetic parameters showed that the T. molitor digestive dipeptidase prefers as substrates dipeptides having a large lateral chain in P1 position.
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