Specific Enzymic Cleavage of Polypeptides at Cysteine Residues
Open Access
- 1 August 1975
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in European Journal of Biochemistry
- Vol. 56 (2), 421-426
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1975.tb02248.x
Abstract
A method has been developed for specific enzymic cleavage of polypeptides at the N-terminal side of modified cysteine residues. Lysine residues are blocked by trifluoroacetylation and cysteine residues subsequently converted to the 2-aminoethyl derivatives. Digestion of the modified polypeptide with the lysine-specific protease from Armillaria mellea (patented by Walton et al., (1972) occurs only at 2-aminoethylcysteine residues. With the β chain of human haemoglobin, which contains 2 cysteine and 11 lysine residues, cleavage was observed at both modified cysteines but at none of the lysines. In the case of a polypeptide from bee venom which contains 4 half-cystine and 5 lysine residues, cleavage occurred at only 2 of the modified cysteines and also at 2 lysine residues. The pattern of cleavage in the latter case can be interpreted in terms of the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide.Keywords
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