Side chains disulfide bridge

Disulfide bridges (Section 23.4) The attachment of amino acids through sulfur-sulfur bonds formed from the oxidation of cysteine CH2SH side chains. Disulfide bridges can be formed within a single peptide or between two peptides. 

The side groups of the amino acids vary markedly in size and chemical nature and play an important role in the chemical reactions of the fiber. For example, the basic groups (hisidine, arginine, and lysine) can attract acid (anionic) dyes, and in addition the side chains of lysine and hisidine are important sites for the attachment of reactive dyes. The sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine plays a very important role, because almost all of the cysteine residues in the fiber are linked in pairs to form cystine residues, which provide a disulfide bridge —S—S— between different polypeptide molecules or between segments of the same molecules as shown ... 

Figure 11.7 Schematic diagram of the structure of chymotrypsin, which is folded into two antiparallel p domains. The six p strands of each domain are red, the side chains of the catalytic triad are dark blue, and the disulfide bridges that join the three polypeptide chains are marked in violet. Chain A (green, residues 1-13) is linked to chain B (blue, residues 16-146) by a disulfide bridge between Cys 1 and Cys 122. Chain B is in turn linked to chain C (yellow, residues 149-245) by a disulfide bridge between Cys 136 and Cys 201. Dotted lines indicate residues 14-15 and 147-148 in the inactive precursor, chmotrypsinogen. These residues are excised during the conversion of chymotrypsinogen to the active enzyme chymotrypsin.

Also important for stabilizing a protein s tertiary stmcture are the formation of disulfide bridges between cysteine residues, the formation of hydrogen bonds between nearby amino acid residues, and the presence of ionic attractions, called salt bridges, between positively and negatively charged sites on various amino acid side chains within the protein. 

The amino acid cysteine piays a unique roie in tertiary protein stmcture. The —SH groups of two cysteine side chains can cross-iink through an S—S bond caiied a disulfide bridge, as shown below. 

Bridged polysilsesquioxanes having covalently bound acidic groups, introduced via modification of the disulfide linkages within the network, were studied as solid-state electrolytes for proton-exchange fuel cell applications.473 Also, short-chain polysiloxanes with oligoethylene glycol side chains, doped with lithium salts, were studied as polymer electrolytes for lithium batteries. 

Structurally rather complicated target molecules can be synthesized with the aid of thi-olate 1,6-addition reactions to acceptor-substituted dienes as well. For example, a richly functionalized proline derivative with a 2,4-pentadienal side chain was converted into the corresponding 6-phenylthio-3-hexen-2-one derivative by 1,6-addition of phenylthiolate, treatment of the adduct with methyl lithium and oxidation (equation 46)127. The product was transformed into acromelic acid A, the toxic principle of clitocybe acromelalga ichimura. Similarly, the 1,6-addition reaction of cesium triphenylmethylthiolate to methyl 2,4-pentadienoate served for the construction of the disulfide bridge of the macrobicyclic antitumor depsipeptide FR-901,228128. 

The differences in reactivity between the three Asn residues has been explained by their molecular environment [134], AsnA18 appears protected from deamidation by being flanked at the C-terminal side with a bulky Tyr, and by being positioned in an a-helix and close to a disulfide bridge. In contrast, AsnA21 is at the C-terminus of chain A and appears readily accessible for acid catalysis. As for AsnB3, it is located in a flexible part of the peptide sequence and can, thus, react at neutral pH to form the intermediate succinimide (Fig. 6.29, Pathway e). 

Disulfide bridges are, of course, true covalent bonds (between the sulfurs of two cysteine side chains) and are thus considered part of the primary structure of a protein by most definitions. Experimentally they also belong there, since they can be determined as part of, or an extension of, an amino acid sequence determination. However, proteins normally can fold up correctly without or before disulfide formation, and those SS links appear to influence the structure more in the manner of secondary-structural elements, by providing local specificity and stabilization. Therefore, it seems appropriate to consider them here along with the other basic elements making up three-dimensional protein structure. 

The aliphatic amino acids (class 1) include glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine. These amino acids do not contain heteroatoms (N, 0, or S) in their side chains and do not contain a ring system. Their side chains are markedly apolar. Together with threonine (see below), valine, leucine, and isoleucine form the group of branched-chain amino acids. The sulfurcontaining amino acids cysteine and methionine (class 11), are also apolar. However, in the case of cysteine, this only applies to the undissociated state. Due to its ability to form disulfide bonds, cysteine plays an important role in the stabilization of proteins (see p. 72). Two cysteine residues linked by a disulfide bridge are referred to as cystine (not shown). 

Due to the relatively high flexibility of cyclic peptides of larger ring size an additional cyclization is sometimes used to constrain their conformation, even by nature, e.g. amanitins and phalloidins. 316 For this purpose primarily side-chain-to-side-chain cyclization is adopted, e.g. Glu/Asp versus Lys or disulfide bridges 1322 alternatively, even the principle of backbone cyclization is applied (see Section 6.8.4)J29>80 323>3241... 

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