The Complete Amino-Acid Sequence of Human α-Lactalbumin.

α-Lactalbumin was isolated from human milk in a yield of 1.8 mg/ml of milk. The purification procedure involved ammonium sulphate fractionation (30% to 80% saturation) and pH-4.0 precipitation, followed by gel filtration with Sephadex G-100. A final purification stage using DEAE-cellulose was necessary in some preparations. Peptides derived from the reduced, S-aminoethylated protein by treatment with cyanogen bromide and digestion of these CNBr fragments with trypain, chymotrypsin or thermolysin, were purified by gel filtration, ion exchange chromatography and high-voltage paper electrophoresis. From the sequences of these peptides it has proved possible to deduce unambiguously the complete primary structure of the protein. Comparison with bovine α-laotaIbumin shows an identity in 72% of the residues with a further 6% being chemically similar amino acids. The corresponding figures for the human α-Iactalbumin/human lysozyme comparison, are 39% and 12%, respectively. The significance of some of the amino acid replacements is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]