Application

Catalase acts as a natural antioxidant to study the roles of reactive oxygen species in gene expression and apoptosis. It has also been used to protect against oxidative damage to proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Industrially, catalses have been used to remove hydrogen peroxide added to milk and cheese, in textile bleaching, and to examine its positive effects on the viability of DNA-repair mutants of E. coli.

Biochem/physiol Actions

Catalase catalyzes the degradation of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. It can also react with alkylhydrogen peroxides, such as methylperoxide and ethylperoxide and the second H₂O₂ molecule can be replaced by methanol, ethanol, propanol, formate and nitrate as a hydrogen donor.

Components

Catalase from bovine liver is a tetramer consisting of 4 equal subunits each with a 60 kDa molecular weight. Each of these subunits contains iron bound to a protoheme IX group. The enzyme will also strongly bind to NADP, where NADP and the heme group are within 13.7 angstroms.

Packaging

10, 50 g in poly bottle

Unit Definition

One unit will decompose 1.0 micromole of hydrogen peroxide per minute at pH 7.0 and 25 deg C, while the hydrogen peroxide concentration falls from 10.3 to 9.2 millimolar.