Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 September 2008
A survey of proteinaceous inhibitors of the serine proteinases, bovine trypsin and chymotrypsin, that are extractable from dry seeds of several cultivars of pasture grasses has been undertaken. Using crude extracts, most cultivars screened contained inhibitors of chymotrypsin, whereas trypsin inhibition was not detectable. Seeds from four cultivars, Lolium perenne L. cv. Grasslands Ruanui, Lolium × boucheanum cv. Grasslands Greenstone, Festuca arundinacea Schreb. cultivars Grasslands Roa and Grasslands Garland, that contained more potent chymotrypsin inhibition were purified further. After gel filtration chromatography, both trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibition could be observed in all four cultivars, and each separated into two discrete native molecular weights; one of ca. 20–22 kDa and one of ca. 8–10 kDa. However, activity staining, after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, revealed an array of iso-inhibitors with molecular weights that ranged from ca. 3 kDa to 20 kDa. One of these, a dual trypsin/chymotrypsin inhibitor of ca. 12 kDa that is present in all four cultivars examined, was purified to homogeneity from F. arundinacea cv. Grasslands Garland using anhydro-trypsin affinity chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC. The protein was found to comprise two closely related peptides and N-terminal amino acid sequencing revealed highest identity with a trypsin inhibitor identified in rye (Secale cereale) seeds.