Determination of the redox state of myoglobin (Mb) gives useful information for evaluating the quality of tuna meat. To attain this purpose, a fast streamlined method has been established basically based on preparative native gel electrophoresis to isolate Mb from the dark muscle of Pacific bluefin tuna. Crude Mb fraction was prepared from dark muscle by ammonium sulfate saturation fractionation and subsequently Mb was purified by preparative native gel electrophoresis under the isoelectric pH of the Mb, resulting in absorption (or trapping) of all the contaminating proteins in the gel. Purified Mb was converted to oxy form with a trace amount of sodium hydrosulfite, and subsequently dialyzed against 50 mM sodium citrate (pH 5.6) or 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.5). The purified tuna Mb was examined for the temperature and pH dependencies of autoxidation using horse Mb as a reference. Tuna Mb was oxidized 2.5-3 times faster than horse Mb irrespective of the pH conditions examined. The highest autoxidation rates both at 0 and 37 °C were observed at pH 5.6. These data were comparable to those obtained for Mbs isolated by conventional chromatographic methods.
Keywords: Autoxidation; Myoglobin; Preparative electrophoresis; Streamlined isolation; Tuna.