Location and State of Methionine Residues in a Papain-synthesized

Plastein from a Mixture of Soybean Protein Hydrolysate and L-Methionine Ethyl Ester

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With the aid of papain, a plastein was synthesized from a 1:10 mixture of Lmethionine ethyl ester and a peptic hydrolysate of soybean protein. Dialysis of the whole reaction-product yielded a methionine-incorporated plastein (Met-plastein) as the nondialyzable fraction, its yield being 78.2% on a dry-matter basis, of the whole reaction-product. Methionine content in this Met-plastein was 7.22% on a weight basis, while its content in the material hydrolysate was only 1.25%. Carboxypeptidase A treatment of Met-plastein liberated methionine at an outstandingly rapid rate. A similar, but not so outstanding, rate was observed for the methionine liberation from Met-plastein by treatment with leucine aminopeptidase. Methyl isothiocyanate treatment and subsequent cyclization yielded a mixture of methylthiohydantoins from Met-plastein. Gas chromatographic analysis of this mixture after trimethylsilylation showed a result that methionine occupied 33.2%, on a molar basis, of the total N-terminal amino acids. Lithium borohydride reduction and 6 N hydrochloric acid hydrolysis of Met-plastein produced monomeric aminols, and their 2, 4-dinitrophenylation followed by thin-layer chromatography gave a result that methionine occupied 84.9%, on a molar basis, of the total C-terminal amino acids; the residues amounting to 14.4%, of the C-terminal methionine residues remained as an ethyl eater form. The selective degradation probe employing cyanogen bromide to generate free homoserine disclosed that the occurrence of the polymeric methionine-methionine sequence was little if any in Met-plastein. Based on the above experiments as well as an evaluation of the esterase activity against L-methionine ethyl ester, a possible mechanism was discussed of the papain-catalyzed synthesis of plastein in a system containing such an ester.