Proteolytic Action of Pepsin on Glutenin

Abstract

SUMMARY Pepsin rapidly decreases the viscosity of a glutenin dispersion having an acid reaction and rapidly increases‐the amount of water‐soluble fragments. The molecular weight of the solubilized fragments, estimated by the gel‐filtration method, indicates that most of the fragments are large and have: molecular weights greater than 10,000. A comparison of data obtained by gel filtration and by determination of terminal amino acids in pepsin hydrolysates of glutenin indicates that cleavage of a few pep‐tide bonds rapidly produces these large molecular polypeptides from glutenin. Further pepsin action causes a substantial increase in small peptide fragments.