7-Glutamyl amino acids, pyrrolidone

It is known that peptides and proteins exhibit a higher absorbance at wavelengths below 240 nm than the component amino acids (40, 41) and that the absorbance at 205 nm of peptides and proteins is approximately proportional to the number of peptide bonds. Pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, which has an internal peptide bond, exhibits this type of absorbance, which may be used under appropriate conditions for its quantitative determination. Thus, Orlowski et al. (13) followed the activity of y-glutamyl cyclotransferase by this procedure after incubation of the enzyme with y-glutamyl amino acids, the reaction mixture was passed through a small column of Dowex 50 (H+) in order to remove interfering substances, and the absorbance of the eluate at 205 nm was then determined. 

VII. Enzymic Formation of Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Add from y-Glutamyl Amino Acids... 

WiLK, S., and M. Orlowski Determination of pyrrolidone carboxylate and y-glutamyl amino acids by gas chromatography. Anal. Biochem. 69, 100 (1975). 

Fig. 1. The y-glutamyl cycle. I, y-Glutamylcysteine synthetase II, glutathione synthetase III, y-glutamyl transpeptidase IV, y-glutamyl cyclotransferase V. peptidase. PCA = pyrrolidone carboxylic acid AA = amino acid.

This was first foimd by Sanger et al. (1955) in a peptide from insulin and was observed with other peptides by Hirs et al. (1956) and Smyth et al. (1962). The reaction appears to occur when acidic buffers or dilute acids are employed for isolation of peptides. Conversion of the cyclic pyrrolidone carboxyl residue to a glutamyl residue is obtained on mild hydrolysis in dilute acids or alkalies. The cyclization reaction leads to difficulties when sequence methods are used which proceed from the amino-terminal end of a peptide. In addition, this reaction can occur when an internal glutamine residue becomes amino-terminal in the course of stepwise sequence analysis under acidic conditions, as in the Edman methods. An incorrect sequence for a peptide from ribonuclease was deduced as the result of cyclization of amino-terminal glutamine and acidic destruction of serine and threonine in the same peptide (Smyth et al., 1962). 

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