Abstract
THE phenolase complex, by which I mean that pair of enzymic activities occurring together and associated with copper-protein, which catalyses the o-hydroxylation of phenols and dehydrogenation of o-diphenols, is found in organisms throughout the phylogenetic scale, and catalyses the formation of quinones from o-diphenols. These enzyme-generated o-quinones react with proteins to form, inter alia, the sclerotized cuticles of arthropods and other phyla1, the sepia of squid, and the melanins which colour the teguments, feathers, hair and eyes of the vertebrates2. In this communication I wish briefly to describe some hitherto undescribed phenomena which appear to play important parts during the interaction of protein–diphenol–phenolase systems.
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References
Richards, A. Glenn, “The Integument of Arthropods” (Univ. Minnesota Press, 1951).
Fox, D. L., “Animal Biochromes and Structural Colours” (Camb. Univ. Press, 1951).
Jackson, H., and Kendal, L. P., Biochem. J., 44, 477 (1949). Hackman, R. H., and Todd, A. R., Biochem. J., 55, 631 (1953).
Cohn, E. J., and Edsall, J. T., “Proteins, Amino Acids and Peptides” (Reinhold, 1943).
Mason, H. S., “Advances in Enzymology”, 16 (1955).
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MASON, H. Reactions between Quinones and Proteins. Nature 175, 771–772 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/175771b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/175771b0
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