Methionine modification

Mix and react for 2 hours at room temperature. To avoid the possibility of methionine modification, limit the reaction to 30 minutes. 

When RNase-S was treated with iodoacetate at pH 6, both inactivation and histidine modification occurred 164). The modified histidine was in S-protein and was assumed to be His 119 since the sole product on analysis was 1-CM-His. In the absence of S-peptide only methionine modification occurred in S-protein. The loss of potential activity probably resulted from the reaction of the second of the two modifiable Met residues. The location of these residues in the sequence was not established. 

M. D. Jones, L. A. Merewether, C. L. Clogston, and H. S. Lu, Peptide map analysis of recombinant human granulocyte colony stimulating factor elimination of methionine modification and nonspecific cleavages, Anal. Biochem., 276 135 (1994). 

A second type of methionine modification is alkylation by haloalkyl-amides (see Figure 5d). Since the sulfur atom remains unprotonated in rather strongly acidic solutions (such as pH 2), methionine usually can be alkylated selectively at pH values below 4. 

Histone methylation is a common posttranslational modification fond in histones. Histone methylations have been identified on lysine and arginine residues. In case of lysines S-adenosyl-methionine (SAM) dependent methyl transferases catalyze the transfer of one, two or three methyl groups. Lysine methylation is reversible and lysine specific demethylases have been... 

Unfortunately, the modification of the side chain is not a generally applicable approach. Among the major, naturally occurring amino acids, only L-lysine has a chemically reactive side chain that would be as readily available for chemical modification as the side chain of glutamic or aspartic acid. Since, however, poly (L-lysine) is known to be toxic (10), its derivatives cannot be candidates for generally applicable biomaterials. Thus, most of the poly(amino acids) that have so far been suggested as biomaterials are derivatives of gluteunic or aspartic acid or copolymers of such derivatives with leucine, methionine, or a limited number of additional amino acids (11). 

The introduction of redox activity through a Co11 center in place of redox-inactive Zn11 can be revealing. Carboxypeptidase B (another Zn enzyme) and its Co-substituted derivative were oxidized by the active-site-selective m-chloroperbenzoic acid.1209 In the Co-substituted oxidized (Co111) enzyme there was a decrease in both the peptidase and the esterase activities, whereas in the zinc enzyme only the peptidase activity decreased. Oxidation of the native enzyme resulted in modification of a methionine residue instead. These studies indicate that the two metal ions impose different structural and functional properties on the active site, leading to differing reactivities of specific amino acid residues. Replacement of zinc(II) in the methyltransferase enzyme MT2-A by cobalt(II) yields an enzyme with enhanced activity, where spectroscopy also indicates coordination by two thiolates and two histidines, supported by EXAFS analysis of the zinc coordination sphere.1210... 

Figure 2.5 The cisplatin reactive group can covalently couple to methionine-, cysteine-, and histidine-containing peptides or proteins. It also reacts with guanine groups to form a covalent modification on the N7 nitrogen.

Vithayathil, P.J., and Richards, F.M. (1960) Modification of the methionine residue in the peptide component of ribonuclease-S./. Biol. Chem. 235, 2343-2351. 

Investigations of the effects of UV- and hypochlorite-induced oxidative modification of 20 amino acids and human serum albumin (HSA) on their antiradical properties showed unexpected results [36], Seven amino acids (cystine, histidine, methionine, phenylalanine, serine, tryptophan, and tyrosine) and HSA developed ACW following oxidation (see examples in Fig. 14). The fresh (produced in 1998) HSA from Serva had no antiradical capacity, but it acquired this quality during irradiation. The out-of-date HSA sample (Dessau, GDR, 1987, expiration date 7/1/1992) showed a remarkable ACW even in an unirradiated state. 

In normal cells, the GDP/GTP-binding proteins, after protein synthesis, move to the cell membrane to which they become hooked by a hydrophobic farnesyl group. The y-subunit is anchored in the membrane by a post-translational modification of the C-terminal CAAX sequence (C - cystein, AA - aliphatic amino acids, X - methionine). This protein is first enzymatically farnesylated by a specific farnesyltransferase, then the AAX part is cleaved by specific proteases and finally the cystein residue is converted to a methyl ester. 

Histone methylation is another posttranslational modification which involves a transfer of a methyl group from the methyl donor S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) to lysine or arginine residues (Fig. 1). In sharp contrast with histone acetylation, this modification occurs particularly in histones H3 and H4 with a remarkable specificity (Kouzarides, 2002 Shilatifard, 2006) (Fig. 1, Table 2). Another feature of histone methylation is that a large fraction of histones in mature chromatin is... 

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