PATATIN AND ESTERASE IN DESIREE POTATO TUBERS1

Patatin, the major glycoprotein of potato tubers, had very similar chemical and physical properties whether isolated from cultivar Desiree or from Kennebec. The patatin of each cultivar exhibited copurification with p-nitrophenyl laurate esterase. However, the esterases from the two sources differed in substrate preference ranging from near equality toward α-naphthyl laurate to a hundredfold difference toward p-nitrophenyl laurate.