scholarly journals Vibration assisted electron tunneling through nano-gaps in graphene nano-ribbons for amino-acid and peptide bond recognition

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 3547-3554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Zollo ◽  
Aldo Eugenio Rossini

Vibrational modes assisted tunneling in nano-gaps of graphene nanoribbons reveal specific features allowing the recognition of amino-acids and peptide bonds with atomistic resolution.

1995 ◽  
Vol 305 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
G J Sharman ◽  
D H Williams ◽  
D F Ewing ◽  
C Ratledge

The extracellular siderophore from Mycobacterium smegmatis, exochelin MS, was isolated from iron-deficiently grown cultures and purified to > 98% by a combination of ion-exchange chromatography and h.p.l.c. The material is unextractable into organic solvents, is basic (pI = 9.3-9.5), has a lambda max at 420 nm and a probable Ks for Fe3+ of between 10(25) and 10(30). Its structure has been determined by examination of desferri- and ferri-exochelin and its gallium complex. The methods used were electrospray-m.s. and one- and two-dimensional (NOESY, DQF-COSY and TOCSY) 1H n.m.r. The constituent amino acids were examined by chiral g.l.c analysis of N-trifluoroacetyl isopropyl and N-pentafluoropropionyl methyl esters after hydrolysis, and reductive HI hydrolysis, of the siderophore. The exochelin is a formylated pentapeptide: N-(delta-N-formyl,delta N-hydroxy-R-ornithyl) -beta-alaninyl-delta N-hydroxy-R-ornithinyl-R-allo-threoninyl-delta N-hydroxy-S-ornithine. The linkages involving the three ornithine residues are via their delta N(OH) and alpha-CO groups leaving three free alpha-NH2 groups. Although there are two peptide bonds, these involve the three R (D)-amino acids. Thus the molecule has no conventional peptide bond, and this suggests that it will be resistant to peptidase hydrolysis. The co-ordination centre with Fe3+ is hexadenate in an octahedral structure involving the three hydroxamic acid groups. Molecular modelling shows it to have similar features to other ferric trihydroxamate siderophores whose three-dimensional structures have been established. The molecule is shown to have little flexibility around the iron chelation centre, although the terminal (Orn-3) residue, which is not involved in iron binding except at its delta N atom, has more motional freedom.


1986 ◽  
Vol 236 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
G A Russell ◽  
B Dunbar ◽  
L A Fothergill-Gilmore

The complete amino acid sequence of chicken skeletal-muscle enolase, comprising 433 residues, was determined. The sequence was deduced by automated sequencing of hydroxylamine-cleavage, CNBr-cleavage, o-iodosobenzoic acid-cleavage, clostripain-digest and staphylococcal-proteinase-digest fragments. The presence of several acid-labile peptide bonds and the tenacious aggregation of most CNBr-cleavage fragments meant that a commonly used sequencing strategy involving initial CNBr cleavage was unproductive. Cleavage at the single Asn-Gly peptide bond with hydroxylamine proved to be particularly useful. Comparison of the sequence of chicken enolase with the two yeast enolase isoenzyme sequences shows that the enzyme is strongly conserved, with 60% of the residues identical. The histidine and arginine residues implicated as being important for the activity of yeast enolase are conserved in the chicken enzyme. Secondary-structure predictions are analysed in an accompanying paper [Sawyer, Fothergill-Gilmore & Russell (1986) Biochem. J. 236, 127-130].


Author(s):  
Alan Kelly

Proteins are, in my view, the most impressive molecules in food. They influence the texture, crunch, chew, flow, color, flavor, and nutritional quality of food. Not only that, but they can radically change their properties and how they behave depending on the environment and, critically for food, in response to processes like heating. Even when broken down into smaller components they are important, for example giving cheese many of its critical flavor notes. Indeed, I would argue that perhaps the most fundamental phenomenon we encounter in cooking or processing food is the denaturation of proteins, as will be explained shortly. Beyond food, the value of proteins and their properties is widespread across biology. Many of the most significant molecules in our body and that of any living organism (including plants and animals) are proteins. These include those that make hair and skin what they are, as well as the hemoglobin that transports oxygen around the body in our blood. Proteins are built from amino acids, a family of 20 closely related small molecules, which all have in chemical terms the same two ends (chemically speaking, an amino end and an acidic end, hence the name) but differ in the middle. This bit in the middle varies from amino acid to amino acid, from simple (a hydrogen atom in the case of glycine, the simplest amino acid) to much more complex structures. Amino acids can link up very neatly, as the amino end of one can form a bond (called a peptide bond) with the acid end of another, and so forth, so that chains of amino acids are formed that, when big enough (more than a few dozen amino acids), we call proteins. Our bodies produce thousands of proteins for different functions, and the instructions for which amino acids combine to make which proteins are essentially what the genetic code encrypted in our DNA specifies. We hear a lot about our genes encoding the secrets of life, but what that code spells is basically P-R-O-T-E-I-N. Yes, these are very important molecules!


Soil Research ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
JN Ladd ◽  
JHA Butler

Twenty-three model phenolic polymers, either nitrogen-free or incorporating amino acids, peptides, or proteins, have been prepared from p-benzoquinone and catechol under mild oxidative conditions. Two lines of experimentation have demonstrated properties of soil humic acids closely similar to those of polymers incorporating proteins, but different from those of polymers incorporating amino acids: (1) fractionation of humic acids and synthetic polymers by 'Sephadex' gel filtration showed that the percentage of components of molecular weights nominally greater than 100 000 ranged from 52-76 % for eight humic acids tested, 53-59 % for benzoquinone-protein polymers (excluding polymers containing protamine), but less than 20% for all other polymers; (2) acid hydrolysis with 6M HCl resulted in a partial release of polymer nitrogen. Amino acid nitrogen in the hydrolysates accounted for 32.4-51.9 % of humic acid nitrogen, 31.2-56.3 % of the nitrogen of polymers incorporating protein, but less than 10.8% of the nitrogen of polymers incorporating individual amino acids. Experiments with model monomeric N-phenylglycine derivatives and with polymers incorporating simple peptides showed that the bond between the carbon atom of an aromatic ring and the nitrogen atom of an a-amino acid is far more stable to acid hydrolysis than peptide bonds or bonds linking amino acids in humic acids. Glycine is, however, readily released from N-phenylglycine derivatives when conditions favour their oxidation to a quinone-imine intermediate. Incorporation of proteins into phenolic polymers prevented the detection of peptide bonds by the Folin reagent.


1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1235 ◽  
Author(s):  
AS Inglis ◽  
PW Nicholls ◽  
CM Roxburgh

Reaction of hydriodic acid with peptides and proteins has been studied. At the boiling point, hydrolysis of the peptide bond, particularly stable bonds linking valine and isoleucine residues, is facile. Several amino acids react with constantboiling hydriodic acid but the only reactions detrimental to the amino acid analysis are the reduction of serine with concomitant formation of alanine, and the destruction of tryptophan. Gentler conditions of hydrolysis with diluted hydriodic acid are required for analysis of serine. Good results for analysis of proteins for amino acids may be obtained after a 6-hr hydrolysis period.


1987 ◽  
Vol 241 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
P E Butler ◽  
M J McKay ◽  
J S Bond

Meprin is an intrinsic protein of the brush border, a specialized plasma membrane, of the mouse kidney. It is a metalloendopeptidase that contains 1 mol of zinc and 3 mol of calcium per mol of the 85,000-Mr subunit. The enzyme is isolated, and active, as a tetramer. The behaviour of the enzyme on SDS/polyacrylamide gels in the presence and absence of beta-mercaptoethanol indicates that the subunits are of the same Mr (approx. 85,000) and held together by intersubunit S–S bridges. Eight S-carboxymethyl-L-cysteine residues were detected after reduction of the enzyme with beta-mercaptoethanol and carboxymethylation with iodoacetate. The enzyme is a glycoprotein and contains approx. 18% carbohydrate. Most of the carbohydrate is removed by endoglycosidase F, indicating that the sugar residues are N-linked. The isoelectric point of the enzyme is between pH 4 and 5, and the purified protein yields a pattern of evenly spaced bands in this range on isoelectric focusing. The peptide-bond specificity of the enzyme has been determined by using the oxidized B-chain of insulin as substrate. In all, 15 peptide degradation products were separated by h.p.l.c. and analysed for their amino acid content and N-terminal amino acid residue. The prevalent peptide-bond cleavages were between Gly20 and Glu21, Phe24 and Phe25 and between Phe25 and Tyr26. Other sites of cleavage were Leu6-Cysteic acid7, Ala14-Leu15, His10-Leu11, Leu17-Val18, Gly8-Ser9, Leu15-Tyr16, His5-Leu6. These results indicate that meprin has a preference for peptide bonds that are flanked by hydrophobic or neutral amino acid residues, but hydrolysis is not limited to these bonds. The ability of meprin to hydrolyse peptide bonds between small neutral and negatively charged amino acid residues distinguishes it from several other metalloendopeptidases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akash Kothari ◽  
Linglan Zhu ◽  
Jon Babi ◽  
Natalie Galant ◽  
Anita Rágyanszki ◽  
...  

Background: Peptide bonds are among the fundamental building blocks of life, polymerizing amino acids to form proteins that make up the structural components of living cells and regulate biochemical processes. The detection of glycine by NASA in comet Wild 2 in 2009 suggests the possibility of the formation of biomolecules in extraterrestrial environments through the interstellar medium. Detected in the dense molecular cloud Sagittarius B2, acetamide is the largest molecule containing a peptide bond and is hypothesized to be the precursor to all amino acids; as such, viability of its formation is of important biological relevance. Methods: Under a proposed mechanism of ammonia and ketene reactants, which have also been detected in dense molecular clouds in the ISM, the reaction pathway for the formation of acetamide was modelled using quantum chemical calculations in Gaussian16, using Austin-Frisch-Petersson functional with dispersion density functional theory at a 6-31G(d) basis set level of theory to optimize geometries and determine the thermodynamic properties for the reaction. Stability of the reactants, transition states, and products were examined to establish a reasonable mechanism. Conclusion: Product formation of acetamide was found to be highly exergonic and exothermic with a low energy barrier, suggesting a mechanism that is viable in the extreme density and temperature conditions found in ISM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
Healthy Kainama ◽  
Hanoch J. Sohilait ◽  
Christian Jacob Souisa

Gastropods are the sources of protein for coastal communities in the Maluku islands. We conducted analysis quantitative and qualitative of protein in Nerita undata meat from Hasa Cape in Saparua Island. The percentage of protein was analyzed by the Kjeldahl method. Qualitative analysis began with breaking peptide bonds in protein to amino acid components by sulphuric acid and barium hydroxide hydrolyzed. We identified amino acid compounds by using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) in butanol-acetic acid-water (8:1:1, v/v) as eluent. The result showed that N. undata meat contains 11.15% of protein and twelve amino acid compounds. There are seven essential amino acids in N. undata meat from supralittoral rocks and mezolittoral zone of Hasa cape is a source of quality protein. Thus, this species can be considered as a source of high-quality protein.


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