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Selenocysteine‐Mediated Native Chemical Ligation
Author(s) -
Quaderer Richard,
Sewing Axel,
Hilvert Donald
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
helvetica chimica acta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.74
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1522-2675
pISSN - 0018-019X
DOI - 10.1002/1522-2675(20010516)84:5<1197::aid-hlca1197>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - chemistry , native chemical ligation , selenocysteine , ligation , stereochemistry , combinatorial chemistry , biochemistry , cysteine , medicine , enzyme
C‐Terminal peptide thioesters are shown to react efficiently with peptide fragments containing an N‐terminal selenocysteine to give selenoproteins. In analogy to the native chemical ligation of thioesters and peptides containing N‐terminal cysteines, the selenol presumably attacks the thioester nucleophilically to give a selenoester intermediate that subsequently rearranges to give a native chemical bond. The utility of this procedure was demonstrated by the synthesis of a selenium‐containing derivative of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) in which Cys 38 is replaced by selenocysteine. The artificial selenoprotein folds into a conformation similar to that of wild‐type BPTI and inhibits trypsin and chymotrypsin with unaltered affinity.