Peptide bonds covalent

Solid-phase peptide synthesis (Section 27.18) Method for peptide synthesis in which the C-terminal amino acid is covalently attached to an inert solid support and successive amino acids are attached via peptide bond formation. At the completion of the synthesis the polypeptide is removed from the support. 

Chemically, proteins are unbranched polymers of amino acids linked head to tail, from carboxyl group to amino group, through formation of covalent peptide bonds, a type of amide linkage (Figure 5.1). 

The peptide linkage is usually portrayed by a single bond between the carbonyl carbon and the amide nitrogen (Figure 5.3a). Therefore, in principle, rotation may occur about any covalent bond in the polypeptide backbone because all three kinds of bonds (N——C, and the —N peptide bond) are sin-... 

Insulin is composed of two peptide chains covalently linked by disulfide bonds (Figures 5.17 and 6.35). This monomer of insulin is the active form that binds to receptors in target cells. However, in solution, insulin spontaneously forms dimers, which themselves aggregate to form hexamers. The surface of the insulin molecule that self-associates to form hexamers is also the surface that binds to insulin receptors in target cells. Thus, hexamers of insulin are inactive. 

One may conclude that the rate-determining step of the renaturation is at least partly influenced by the cis-trans isomerization of the peptide bond the secondary nitrogen atom of which arises from proline. Otherwise, only the entropy-controlled slow nuclea-tion should be observed kinetically. The covalent bridging through Lys-Lys, therefore, gives rise not only to thermodynamic stabilization of the triple helix but also to kinetic properties which have hitherto been observed in the case of type III procollagen146) and its aminoterminal fragment Col 1-3144). 

Macromolecules are formed from many fragments of smaller molecules which are connected to each other by covalent bonds. For example, protein molecules are assembled from amino acids which are interconnected by peptide bonds (see Fig. 4.1). Typical amino acids are given in Fig. 4.2. 

Primary structures are stabilized by covalent peptide bonds. Higher orders of structure are stabilized by weak forces—multiple hydrogen bonds, salt (electrostatic) bonds, and association of hydrophobic R groups. 

In mammalian cells, the two most common forms of covalent modification are partial proteolysis and ph osphorylation. Because cells lack the ability to reunite the two portions of a protein produced by hydrolysis of a peptide bond, proteolysis constitutes an irreversible modification. By contrast, phosphorylation is a reversible modification process. The phosphorylation of proteins on seryl, threonyl, or tyrosyl residues, catalyzed by protein kinases, is thermodynamically spontaneous. Equally spontaneous is the hydrolytic removal of these phosphoryl groups by enzymes called protein phosphatases. 

Certain bifunctional metal chelating agents have been used to investigate protein interactions by virtue of their ability to generate reactive oxygen species that affects protein structure in the immediate vicinity of their modification site. The following sections discuss two applications of such chelate labels, one of which cleaves peptide bonds while the other one causes covalent crosslinks to occur between interacting protein structures. 

Finally, special mention must be made of Cys, which, when present alone, can be considered to belong to the polar uncharged group described above. It can, however, when correctly positioned within the three-dimensional (3-D) structure of a protein, form disulfide bridges with another Cys residue (Figure 4.2). These are the only covalent bonds, apart from the peptide bond of course, that we usually find in proteins2. 

Depending on the structure calculation program used, special covalent bonds such as disulfide bridges or cyclic peptide bonds have to be enforced by distance constraints. Disulfide bridges may be fixed by restraining the distance between the two sulfur atoms to 2.0-2.1 A and the two distances between the Cb and the sulfur atoms of different residues to 3.0-3.1 A [7]. 

As an example, Nakayama et al. thermally oxidized CNTs to introduce carboxyl groups at the opened CNT tips and then covalently linked ethylenediamine as a crosslinker (via EDC coupling) to provide primary amino groups that formed peptide bonds with N-hydroxysuccinimide-functionalized proteins (Fig. 5.2) [26]. 

This enzyme (RNase A) is a single chain protein of 124 amino acid residues, cross-linked by four intrachain disulfide bonds. Limited proteolysis of the enzyme cuts a single peptide bond between residues 20 and 21 (Richards and Vithayathil, 1959). The derived protein, RNase S, retains enzymic activity although the N-terminal peptide of 20 amino acids (S-peptide) is no longer covalently attached to the balance of the molecule (S-protein). Removal of S-peptide from... 

Whereas standard proteases use serine, cysteine, aspartate, or metals to cleave peptide bonds, the proteasome employs an unusual catalytic mechanism. N-terminal threonine residues are generated by self-removal of short peptide extensions from the active yS-subunits and act as nucleophiles during peptide-bond hydrolysis [23]. Given its unusual catalytic mechanism, it is not surprising that there are highly specific inhibitors of the proteasome. The fungal metabolite lactacystin and the bacterial product epoxomicin covalently modify the active-site threonines and in-... 

This enzyme catalyzes the covalent insertion of a tyrosine at the C-terminal glutamate of the tubulin a subunit to effect the posttranslational synthesis of a peptide bond (Flavin et al., 1982 Thompson, 1982). The role of this modification reaction remains to be established... 

The hydrolysis of peptide bonds catalyzed by the serine proteases has been the reaction most extensively studied by low-temperature trapping experiments. The reasons for this preference are the ease of availability of substrates and purified enzymes, the stability of the proteins to extremes of pH, temperature, and organic solvent, and the existence of a well-characterized covalent acyl-enzyme intermediate. Both amides and esters are substrates for the serine proteases, and a number of chromo-phoric substrates have been synthesized to simplify assay by spectrophotometric techniques. 

As discussed above, proteases are peptide bond hydrolases and act as catalysts in this reaction. Consequently, as catalysts they also have the potential to catalyze the reverse reaction, the formation of a peptide bond. Peptide synthesis with proteases can occur via one of two routes either in an equilibrium controlled or a kinetically controlled manner 60). In the kinetically controlled process, the enzyme acts as a transferase. The protease catalyzes the transfer of an acyl group to a nucleophile. This requires an activated substrate preferably in the form of an ester and a protected P carboxyl group. This process occurs through an acyl covalent intermediate. Hence, for kineticmly controlled reactions the eii me must go through an acyl intermediate in its mechanism and thus only serine and cysteine proteases are of use. In equilibrium controlled synthesis, the enzyme serves omy to expedite the rate at which the equilibrium is reached, however, the position of the equilibrium is unaffected by the protease. 

Figure 3-2. Reaction mechanism of chymotrypsin as an example of covalent catalysis. Step I involves attack of the enzyme s active site serine on the peptide bond to be cleaved. In step II, a covalent complex is formed between the enzyme and a portion of the substrate (peptide 2) with release of the rest of the substrate (peptide I). Step III involves hydrolysis of the enzyme-substrate complex, which releases peptide 2 and completes the reaction.

---