A technique combining immunoabsorption, electrophoresis and enzymatic characterization reactions in the same gel medium is described using alpha- and beta-amylases from barley seeds, their corresponding immune sera, and alpha-amylases from bacteria. The sensitivity and the specificity of the technique have been determined for alpha-amylase. Two applications of this technique are presented: 1) in physiological studies to ascertain whether an anti-enzyme immune serum reacts with all the forms of the enzyme under study and, 2) for detecting, among antigenically characterized enzymes, proteins which have the same enzymatic activity but are antigenically different. The possibility of applying this technique to other enzymes is discussed.
Amylases Animals