Identification of a 10 S Trypsin-like Protease That Cross-Reacts with Anti-Proteasome Antibody in Sea Urchin Egg Jelly

We have identified 27- and 26-kDa polypeptides in sea urchin egg jelly, both of which cross-reacted with the antibody against 20 S proteasome (multicatalytic proteinase) isolated from sea urchin sperm. Separation of egg jelly fraction by gel filtration or sucrose density gradient centrifugation revealed that these polypeptides comigrated as a complex with a molecular size much smaller than that of proteasome: the apparent molecular mass and the sedimentation coefficient were 200 kDa and 10 S, respectively. This protease significantly hydrolyzed the fluorogenic synthetic substrates for trypsin-like protease but little hydrolyzed those for chymotrypsin-like protease. Trypsin-like activity of sperm proteasome was activated up to more than threefold by a low concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), whereas the egg jelly 10 S protease was inhibited by SDS. Two-dimensional immunoblot and peptide mapping revealed that the 26-kDa polypeptide is a degradative product of 27-kDa polypeptide and that the 10 S protease is composed of a proteasome-related single 27-kDa polypeptide and its modified forms. These results indicate the presence of a 10 S novel assembly of a proteasome subunit only with trypsin-like activity.