3.1.5. Effects of metal ions on protease activity
The effects of some metal ions, at a concentration of 5 mM, onthe activity of S. scrofa crude enzyme were studied at pH 10.0and 55◦C by the addition of metal ions to the reaction mix-ture. As shown in Table 1, the addition of CaCl2and MgSO4increased the activity of the crude protease extract to 109%and 121%, respectively. These results indicated that thesemetal ions were very effective in improving the activity of thecrude protease. The enhancement of protease activity in thepresence of calcium or magnesium may be explained by thestrengthening of interactions inside protein molecules and thebetter stabilization of enzymes against thermal stabilization.The effect of CaCl2and MgSO4concentration on crude enzymeactivity was also studied. As shown in Table 1, the activity ofS. scrofa crude enzyme increases with increasing CaCl2andMgSO4concentration.