Peptides of bacterial origin

It has long been known that peptides of bacterial origin, such as N-formylat-ed oligopeptides, are potent activators of neutrophils. Bacterial protein biosynthesis is initiated by the codon AUG, which codes for polypeptide chains at the NH2 terminus to start with N-formylmethionine. However, very few mature bacterial proteins actually have this amino acid at the NH2 terminus because Af-formylmethionine is cleaved off by proteolytic processing. Sometimes just this amino acid is cleaved, but often several adjacent residues are also removed with it. These observations formed the basis for the chemical synthesis of a variety of N-formylated oligopeptides and an assessment of their ability to activate neutrophils in vitro. The most potent of these formylated peptides is TV-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMet-Leu-Phe). 

Fig. 10. Structures of nonribosomally synthesized peptides of bacterial origin (1-6) and fungal origin (7-9). Me, N-methylated peptide boni Orn, ornithine 4-MHA, 4-methyl-3-hydroxyanthranilic acid Aad, aminoadipic acid Aeo, 2-amino-9,10-epoxy-8-oxodecanoic acid D-Hiv, D-hydroxyisovaleric acid Bmt, (4i )-4-[( )-2-butenyl]-4-methyl-L-threonine Abu, a-aminoisobutyric acid Sar, sarcosine. The boxes signify gene products for peptide synthetases composed of modules which activate and process the indicated amino acids...

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