Peptide Mass Fingerprinting and N-Terminal Amino Acid Sequencing of Glycosylated Cysteine Protease of Euphorbia nivulia Buch.-Ham.

A new cysteine protease named Nivulian-II has been purified from the latex of Euphorbia nivulia Buch.-Ham. The apparent molecular mass of Nivulian-II is 43670.846 Da (MALDI TOF/MS). Peptide mass fingerprint analysis revealed peptide matches to Maturase K (Q52ZV1_9MAGN) of Banksia quercifolia. The N-terminal sequence (DFPPNTCCCICC) showed partial homology with those of other cysteine proteinases of biological origin. This is the first paper to characterize a Nivulian-II of E. nivulia latex with respect to amino acid sequencing.