A reinvestigation of the amino-terminal sequence of human parathyroid hormone

The sequence of the amino-terminal portion of human parathyroid hormone, particularly the identity of residues 22, 28, and 30 (the subject of discrepancies in recent published reports), has been reexamined by two basic methods of structural analysis. A fresh lot of human parathyroid hormone isolated from pooled adenoma tissue was analyzed by Edman degradation with identification of critical residues by thin-layer chromatography and gas-liquid chromatography. In the second approach, -14C or tritiated amino acids were incorporated during biosynthesis of the human hormone in slices of parathyroid glands in vitro; the appropriate amino acid residues were then determined as the -14C or tritiated phenythiohydantoin derivatives of the amino acid after Edman degradation, or by peptide isolation after appropriate cleavage with endopeptidase, or both. The results confirm our previous findings that residue 22 is glutamic acid, residue 28 is leucine, and residue 30 is aspartic acid.