phenolase Biol.
(ˈfiːnəleɪz, -s)
[a. G. phenolase (F. Czapek 1906, in Jahrb. f. wissensch. Bot. XLIII. 380), f. phenol phenol: see -ase.]
Any of a class of copper-containing enzymes found esp. in plants, which oxidize phenols to quinones; = phenol oxidase s.v. phenol c.
| 1911 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. C. i. 824 The phenolase was prepared from Lactarius vellerius. 1931 E. C. Miller Plant Physiol. xiii. 768 The oxidases of plants that have been studied have been grouped into two main classes according to the substances upon which they act. These are the laccases or phenolases and the tyrosinases. 1956 Nature 14 Jan. 79/1 The phenolase complex, widely distributed throughout the phylogenetic scale, consists of two enzymic activities, phenol o-hydroxylase..and o-diphenol dehydrogenase. 1964 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. II. 408 Isolation of the amoebocytes from the fluid brings about more rapid oxidation, suggesting that an inhibitor to phenolase activity may exist in the coelomic fluid. 1975 D. Jarvis tr. Hess's Plant Physiol. 83 Cytochrome oxidase a3 makes direct contact with oxygen and is therefore known, together with a few other enzymes, (peroxidases, catalases, and phenolases), as a ‘direct’ oxidase. |