Disulfide bridge, cysteine

Physiologists had postulated for a long time about the existence of a sodium excreting hormone to prevent Na overload and consequent deleterious effects of high blood pressure on the heart and vascular system. At least two such natriuretic factors have been described atrial or A-type and brain or B-type natriuretic factors. Structurally, the natriuretic factors are peptides with a cysteine-cysteine disulfide bridge creating a characteristic loop , this is illustrated by Figure 8.8. 

Calcitonin is a single-chain polypeptide composed of 32 amino acid residues having a molecular weight of approximately 3600. A cysteine disulfide bridge at the 1-7 position of the amino terminal end of the peptide is essential for biological activity however, the entire amino acid sequence is required for optimal activity. 

Fig. 19.2. Amino acid sequence of the enzyme ribonuclease Tj. Cysteine disulfide bridges which cross-link the linear polypeptide chain are indicated by heavy lines [593 a]...

The ability of proline to adopt a cis conformation in its peptide bond, for example, can create hairpin turns along the length of the protein. The thio groups of a cysteine side chain can be oxidized to form a covalent disulfide bridge between two adjacent cysteines. Disulfide bridges stabilize protein structure and can form large loops in proteins. 

A disulfide bond between cysteine residues in different peptide chains links the otherwise separate chains together, while a disulfide bond between cysteine residues in the same chain forms a loop. Insulin, for instance, is composed of two chains that total 51 amino acids and are linked by two cysteine disulfide bridges. 

Disulfide bridge (Section 27 7) An S—S bond between the sulfur atoms of two cysteine residues in a peptide or pro tein... 

Tertiary structure also refers to the overall shape of a molecule, especially to structures stabilized by disulfide bridges (cystine) formed by the oxidation of cysteine mercapto groups. 

Disulfides. As shown in Figure 4, the and h-chains of insulin are connected by two disulfide bridges and there is an intrachain cycHc disulfide link on the -chain (see Insulin and other antidiabetic drugs). Vasopressin [9034-50-8] and oxytocin [50-56-6] also contain disulfide links (48). Oxidation of thiols to disulfides and reduction of the latter back to thiols are quite common and important in biological systems, eg, cysteine to cystine or reduced Hpoic acid to oxidized Hpoic acid. Many enzymes depend on free SH groups for activation—deactivation reactions. The oxidation—reduction of glutathione (Glu-Cys-Gly) depends on the sulfhydryl group from cysteine. 

The side groups of the amino acids vary markedly in size and chemical nature and play an important role in the chemical reactions of the fiber. For example, the basic groups (hisidine, arginine, and lysine) can attract acid (anionic) dyes, and in addition the side chains of lysine and hisidine are important sites for the attachment of reactive dyes. The sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine plays a very important role, because almost all of the cysteine residues in the fiber are linked in pairs to form cystine residues, which provide a disulfide bridge —S—S— between different polypeptide molecules or between segments of the same molecules as shown ... 

Two cysteine residues in different parts of the polypeptide chain but adjacent in the three-dimensional structure of a protein can be oxidized to form a disulfide bridge (Figure 1.4). The disulfide is usually the end product of air oxidation according to the following reaction scheme ... 

Lysozyme from bacteriophage T4 is a 164 amino acid polypeptide chain that folds into two domains (Figure 17.3) There are no disulfide bridges the two cysteine residues in the amino acid sequence, Cys 54 and Cys 97, are far apart in the folded structure. The stability of both the wild-type and mutant proteins is expressed as the melting temperature, Tm, which is the temperature at which 50% of the enzyme is inactivated during reversible beat denat-uration. For the wild-type T4 lysozyme the Tm is 41.9 °C. 

The results of this careful design of novel disulfide bridges were very encouraging (Figure 17.4). AH the mutants were more stable in their oxidized forms than wild-type protein. The longer the loop between the cysteine... 

Biological function and chemistry of endothelin, vasoactive peptide with macro-cyclic fragments formed by disulfide bridges between cysteine residues 99CCC1211. 

Also important for stabilizing a protein s tertiary stmcture are the formation of disulfide bridges between cysteine residues, the formation of hydrogen bonds between nearby amino acid residues, and the presence of ionic attractions, called salt bridges, between positively and negatively charged sites on various amino acid side chains within the protein. 

Oxytocin is a cyclic compound containing a disulfide bridge between two cysteine residues. 

Cyclopentenones. from 1.4-diketones. 886-887 Cyclopropane, angle strain in, 115 bent bonds in. 115 from alkenes. 227-229 molecular model of, 111. 115 strain energy of, 114 torsional strain in, 115 Cystathionine, cysteine from. 1177 Cysteine, biosynthesis of, 1177 disulfide bridges from, 1029 structure and properties of, 1018 Cytosine, electrostatic potential map of, 1104... 

Disulfide bridges formation ChEs contain 8-10 cysteines six of these form three internal disulfide bridges. The cysteine that is located four amino acids upstream the carboxyl terminus forms a disulfide bridge with a cysteine of an identical subunit, creating an interchain disulfide bridge, which stabilizes the dimeric structure. 

In the Rieske proteins from bci or b f complexes, loops (34-/35 and (36-/37 both contain an additional cysteine residue (Cys 144 and Cys 160 in the ISF and Cys 112 and Cys 127 in RFS) these cysteines form a disulfide bridge connecting the two loops (Fig. 3b). These cysteines are not present in the sequences of Rieske-type proteins, that is, in neither NDO nor Rieske-type ferredoxins. In Rieske proteins, the disulfide bridge appears to be important for the stabilization of the fold around the cluster as the two loops are not shielded by other parts of the protein in NDO, the Rieske cluster is stabilized without a disulfide bridge since it is completely buried by surrounding a and (3 subunits. 

Early mutational studies of the Rieske protein from 6ci complexes have been performed with the intention of identifying the ligands of the Rieske cluster. These studies have shown that the four conserved cysteine residues as well as the two conserved histidine residues are essential for the insertion of the [2Fe-2S] cluster (44, 45). Small amounts of a Rieske cluster with altered properties were obtained in Rhodobacter capsulatus when the second cysteine in the cluster binding loop II (Cys 155, corresponding to Cys 160 in the bovine ISF) was replaced by serine (45). The fact that all four cysteine residues are essential in Rieske clusters from be complexes, but that only two cysteines are conserved in Rieske-type clusters, led to the suggestion that the Rieske protein may contain a disulfide bridge the disulfide bridge was finally shown to exist in the X-ray structure (9). 

Only the ligands of the Rieske cluster, the two cysteines forming the disulfide bridge, and one glycine are fully conserved in all Rieske proteins (see Section III,A,1)... 

In summary, it appears that the protein has to adopt the correct fold before the Rieske cluster can be inserted. The correct folding will depend on the stability of the protein the Rieske protein from the thermoacidophilic archaebacterium Sulfolobus seems to be more stable than Rieske proteins from other bacteria so that the Rieske cluster can be inserted into the soluble form of the protein during expression with the help of the chaperonins. If the protein cannot adopt the correct fold, the result will be either no cluster or a distorted iron sulfur cluster, perhaps using the two cysteines that form the disulfide bridge in correctly assembled Rieske proteins. 

Like the other paralytic toxins from Conus venom, a-conotoxins are small and very tightly folded, structural features which may be advantageous for rapid paralysis of prey (1). a-Conotoxins are typically 13 to 15 amino acids long with two disulfide bridges (see Table III). In addition to the five a-conotoxins shown, two new a-conotoxins (SIA and SIB) from C. striatus have recently been isolated, sequenced, and chemically synthesized. SIA is very unusual because it is 19 amino acid residues long and it contains 6 cysteine residues, three of which are contiguous near the amino terminus (C. Ramilo et al., unpublished results). 

The amino acid cysteine piays a unique roie in tertiary protein stmcture. The —SH groups of two cysteine side chains can cross-iink through an S—S bond caiied a disulfide bridge, as shown below. 

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