Peptides amino acid terminal residue

Maly et al. (1980) irradiated E. coli 50 S ribosomes and found that protein L4 was specifically crosslinked to the 23 S RNA. Again a 1 1 adduct was isolated, and after pepsin digestion, label was found in two peptides. Amino acid analysis showed that the peptides were similar and that a Tyr residue (residue 45 of L4) was altered. In one peptide the altered residue was N-terminal and in the second peptide the residue was the fifth and modified differently from that in the first peptide, in such a way that Edman degradation was blocked. 

C-terminal racemisation of a peptide and specific deuteration of the C-terminal residue can be achieved by cyclisation of the peptide to the peptide oxazolone and quenching in 2H20. This specific reactivity of the C-terminal amino-acid residue has formed the basis of a C-terminal analysis of peptides the C-terminal residue is the only one to be racemised in this way and the identity of the C-terminal residue is revealed by analytical methods for determining d l ratios of amino-acid mixtures (Section 4.18.2 Sih and Gu, 1995). 

Peptide Amino acids present AT-terminal residue Products of partial hydrolysis Yield from DNP- Structure irwulin Yield from L4... 

C-Terminal amino acid The residue at the curboxy end of a peptide chain, placed to the right in drawing. 

In the sequencing of a peptide, the Edman reagent, phenyl isothiocyanate, reacts with the peptide s N-terminal residue. The modified amino acid can be cleaved off, leaving the rest of the peptide intact, and can be detected as the phen-ylthiohydantoin derivative of the amino acid. The second amino acid of the original peptide can then be treated in the same way, as can the third. With an automated instrument called a sequencer (Figure 5.20), the process is repeated until the whole peptide is sequenced. 

C-Terminal amino acid The residue at the carboxy end of a peptide chain, placed to the right in drawing. N-Terminal amino acid The residue at the amino end of a peptide chain, placed to the left in drawing. Terpene One of the (often fragrant) natural compounds made of isoprene, or five-carbon, units. 

This reaction forms the basis of one method of terminal residue analysis A peptide is treated with excess hydrazine in order to cleave all the peptide linkages One of the terminal amino acids is cleaved as the free amino acid and identified all the other ammo acid residues are converted to acyl hydrazides Which amino acid is identified by hydrazmolysis the N terminus or the C terminus ... 

The group of peptides known as tachykinins include substance P, substance K or neurokinin A, and neuromedin K, ie, neurokinin B, as well as a number of nonmammalian peptides. All members of this family contain the conserved carboxy-terrninal sequence Phe-X-Gly-Leu-Met-NH2, where X is an aromatic, ie, Phe or Tyr, or branched aliphatic, eg, Val or lie, amino acid. In general, this C-terminal sequence is cmcial for tachykinin activity (33) in fact, both the methionineamide and the C-terminal amide are cmcial for activity. The nature of the X residue in this sequence determines pharmacological identity (34,35) thus the substance P group contains an aromatic residue in this position, while the substance K group contains an aliphatic residue (33). 

Biosynthesis. Somatostatin exists in longer forms in several biological tissues (95,96). One of the longer forms, which has been isolated from porcine intestine, has been characterized as a 28-amino acid peptide (97). Somatostatin is derived from a precursor containing 116 amino acids (98,99). The precursor contains one copy of the somatostatin tetradecapeptide, which is contained within the sequence of the 28-amino acid peptide at the carboxy-terminal end of the precursor. The 28-amino acid somatostatin is preceded by a single Arg residue, while somatostatin 1-14 is preceded by a pair of basic residues. 

Carboxypeptidases are zinc-containing enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of polypeptides at the C-terminal peptide bond. The bovine enzyme form A is a monomeric protein comprising 307 amino acid residues. The structure was determined in the laboratory of William Lipscomb, Harvard University, in 1970 and later refined to 1.5 A resolution. Biochemical and x-ray studies have shown that the zinc atom is essential for catalysis by binding to the carbonyl oxygen of the substrate. This binding weakens the C =0 bond by... 

The major stmctural feature of the HAz chain (blue in Figure 5.20) is a hairpin loop of two a helices packed together. The second a helix is 50 amino acids long and reaches back 76 A toward the membrane. At the bottom of the stem there is a i sheet of five antiparallel strands. The central i strand is from HAi, and this is flanked on both sides by hairpin loops from HAz. About 20 residues at the amino terminal end of HAz are associated with the activity by which the vims penetrates the host cell membrane to initiate infection. This region, which is quite hydrophobic, is called the fusion peptide. 

FIGURE 5.19 N-Tertninal analysis using Edman s reagent, phenylisothiocyanate. Phenylisothiocyanate combines with the N-terminus of a peptide under mildly alkaline conditions to form a phenylthiocarbamoyl substitution. Upon treatment with TFA (trifluo-roacetic acid), this cyclizes to release the N-terminal amino acid residue as a thiazolinone derivative, but the other peptide bonds are not hydrolyzed. Organic extraction and treatment with aqueous acid yield the N-terminal amino acid as a phenylthiohydantoin (PTH) derivative. 

ENZYMATIC ANALYSIS WITH CARBOXYPEPTIDASES. Carboxypeptidases are enzymes that cleave amino acid residues from the C-termini of polypeptides in a successive fashion. Four carboxypeptidases are in general use A, B, C, and Y. Carboxypeptidase A (from bovine pancreas) works well in hydrolyzing the C-terminal peptide bond of all residues except proline, arginine, and lysine. The analogous enzyme from hog pancreas, carboxypeptidase B, is effective only when Arg or Lys are the C-terminal residues. Thus, a mixture of carboxypeptidases A and B liberates any C-terminal amino acid except proline. Carboxypeptidase C from citrus leaves and carboxypeptidase Y from yeast act on any C-terminal residue. Because the nature of the amino acid residue at the end often determines the rate at which it is cleaved and because these enzymes remove residues successively, care must be taken in interpreting results. Carboxypeptidase Y cleavage has been adapted to an automated protocol analogous to that used in Edman sequenators. 

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