AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Kinetics and properties of ascorbic acid oxidase

by Bernard Burton Elliott




Institution: McGill University
Department: Department of Biology.
Degree: MS.
Year: 1950
Keywords: Botany.
Record ID: 1519373
Full text PDF: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile122711.pdf


Abstract

Since the discovery of ascorbic acid oxidase by Szent-Gyorgyi (55) in 1931, an ever increasing number of plant species and parts have been shown to contain the enzyme. The following list (Table I) of ascorbic acid oxidase-containing plants has been compiled from the literature up to and including 1950. The list, though small, includes plants from eleven families of the Monocotyledoneae and Dicotyledoneae. Several investigators (16, 20, 55, 62) consider that ascorbic acid oxidase in these plants plays a terminal role in their respiration but others (2, 7), are not in agreement with this view owing mainly to the limited distribution of the enzyme. The work reported here has been chiefly devoted to a study of the kinetics of the enzyme as a contribution to the general knowledge of the respiratory enzymes of plants.