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This paper is the first one of a series devoted to the primary structure of the major protein of cow's milk, αs1-casein, a single-chain phosphoprotein, formerly reposed to have arginine as an NH2-termimal, and Leu-TrpOH as COOH-terminal residues. ryptic digestion of maleyl αs1-casein (genetic variant B), in theory bruited to arginyl bonds, yields eight peptidic fragments, Tm1 to Tm8, which were fractionated by column chromatography and, in some cases, more thoroughly purified by preparative paper electrophoresis and/or chromatography. The ammo acid composition and the phosphate content of these fragments were determined. The fragments Tm3 and Tm8 arise from a partial non specific cleavage of Tm5. Thus, six fragments only—2, 4, 5, 6 and 7—arise from the specific cleavage of the αs1-casein chain at arginyl bonds, a result in accordance with the reported number of six arginyl residues in the chain, one being NH2-terminal. The fragment Tm7, with two arginyl residues, and Tm2 devoid of arginine appear to rcpresent respectively the NH2- and COOH-terminal parts of the αs1-casein chain. These peptidic fragments—except Tm4 which is devoid of lysine—were further digested by trypsin at lysyl bonds, after eliminating the blocking maleyl groups. The resulting peptides were purified by the same methods as mentioned above, and the composition of these tryptic peptides was established. As a control, the tryptic peptides of αs1-casein were simultaneously purified by the same methods from a hydrolysate of the protein which had not been treated with maleic anhydride. In summary, this first step of our work gives: (a) the composition of ail the bovine αs1-casein tryptic peptides; (b) partial information on the location of these peptides in the protein chain: (c) confirmation that the molecular weight of the bovine αs1-casein monomer is approximately 23600. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous studies [1,2] on maleyl bovine αS1-B casein were concerned with the isolation and amino acid composition of the tryptic peptides designated as Tm peptides. The sequence of the COOH-terminal Tm peptide containing 48 residues was also reported. In the present study, we report the overlaps of all the cyanogen bromide peptides as well as the Tm peptides from αs1-B casein. The αs1-B casein which contains five methionyl residues was cleaved with cyanogen bromide. The six expected peptides obtained by this treatment and designated as CN peptides, were separated initially on Dowex-50X2 and further purified by Sephadex column chromatography. The amino acid composition of these six purified CN peptides was determined. The results were in perfect agreement with the amino acid composition of αs1-B casein deduced from the analysis of Tm peptides. The three Tm peptides from αs1-B casek@ which contained methionyl residues were also cleaved by cyanogen bromide. The fragments obtained were purified by either paper chromatography or Sephadex column chromatography and the amino acid composition of these purified peptides was determined. Of the eight peptides thus obtained, three were found identical with the CN peptides obtained directly by BrCN treatment of the αs1-B ease@. The remaining three CN peptides from αs1-B casein for which identical fragments could not be located fun the Tm peptides, were digested with trypsin (in two eases after maleylation) and the resulting fragments were purified by Sephadex column chromatography. These trifle peptides provided the remaining gaps. This permitted in to locate the relative position of all the CN peptides in the αs1-B casein molecule. These results also indicate the location of all the Tm peptides except 2 in the αs1-B casein molecule. Further, the chymotryptic peptides from one of the CN fragments of αs1-B casein provided the missing overlaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to determine the primary structure of the bovine β-caseins, the A2 variant was first cleaved with trypsin and cyanogen bromide (CNBr). The tryptic hydrolyzate was separated by column chromatography on Dowex-50. After additional purifications, 13 peptides numbered Ti to T13 were isolated. The 14th tryptic peptide, T14, not eluted from the column, was directly obtained from the hydrolyzate by preparative paper electrophoresis. Amino-acid analyses were carried out on all these peptides. Peptide T1 contain 2 Arginyl residues, one of which is NH2-terminal. This peptide represents the NH2-terminal end of the β-casein. Its composition is identical to that reposed by Peterson et al. in 1958 [1] for a phosphopeptide isolated from the β-casein. Peptide T11 contains 2 Lysyl residues, one of which is NH2terminal. The COOH-terminal peptide was identified with peptide T4, devoid of basic aminoacids. The 14 tryptic peptides account for all the residues of the β-casein A2 when compared with the already published amino-acid analyses of the whole protein [2, 3]. Several other peptides, originating from incomplete or non-specific cleavages, were also obtained. Similarly, 7 peptides accounting for the 6 methionyl residues of the protein were obtained from the same variant of β-casein after cleavage with cyanogen bromide. Six of these peptides were separated on Sephadex G-50. The seventh peptide was obtained by chromatography on Dowex-50 of the whole CNBr-digest. After additional purifications, the ammo-acid compositions of the 7 pure peptides were determined. Peptide CN1 contains peptide T1. It represents the NH2terminal end of β-casein. The COOH-terminal end of β-casein was identified with peptide CN7. As in the case of the tryptic peptides, the 7 CNBr-peptides account for all of the amino-acid residues of β-casein A2. β-casein A2 has 208 amino-acid residues. Its molecular weight is very close to 24 000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]