Influence of phytic acid and its metal complexes on the activity of pectin degrading polygalacturonase

Polygalacturonase is one of the important requirements of different microorganism to cause pathogenicity and spoilage of fruits and vegetables that involved in degradation of pectin during plant tissue infections. In current study, 20 mM phytic acid inhibited 70% activity of polygalacturonase. The effect of different concentration of metal ions such as Cu+2, Al+3 and V+4 were studied separately and it was found that the 20 mM of these metal ions inhibited 37.2%, 79%, and 53% activity of polygalacturonase, respectively. Finally, the complexes of phytic acid and these metals ions were prepared and 1:1 ratio of phytic acid and metal ions complexes showed maximum inhibitory activity of enzyme as compared to complexes having 1:2 and 1:3 ratio except phytate–copper complexes which showed no inhibitory effect on the activity of polygalacturonase.