Bilin attachment sites in the alpha and beta subunits of B-phycoerythrin. Structural studies on the singly linked...

Five unique phycoerythrobilin (PEB) peptides were prepared from Porphyridium cruentum B-phycoerythrin by a combination of tryptic and thermolytic digestion without alteration in the spectroscopic properties of the bilin (Lundell, D.J., Glazer, A.N., DeLange, R.J., and Brown, D.M. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 5472-5480). alpha-1 Cys(PEB)-Tyr-Arg alpha-2 Leu-Cys(PEB)-Val-Pro-Arg beta-1 Met-Ala-Ala-Cys(PEB)-Leu-Arg beta-2T Phe-Ala-Ala-Gly-Asp-Cys(PEB)-Thr-Ser (Formula: see text) where alpha and beta refer to the subunits from which the peptides were derived High resolution 1H NMR analysis of peptides alpha-2, beta-1, and beta-2T combined with earlier studies of peptide alpha-1 (Schoenleber, R.W., Leung, S.-L., Lundell, D.J., Glazer, A.N., and Rapoport, H. (1983) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 105, 4072-4076) has provided proof that all of the singly linked PEB peptides contain a thioether bond to the 3' position of ring A, and strong evidence in support of a trans-dihydro ring A in each of these chromopeptides. The circular dichroism spectra of the four singly linked PEB peptides show that the configuration at C-16 is R in each instance. The present study coupled with previously reported results on peptide beta-3T (Schoenleber, R.W., Lundell, D.J., Glazer, A.N., Rapoport, H. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 5481-5484 provides the first comprehensive analysis of the structure of all the polypeptide-linked prosthetic groups on the alpha and beta subunits of B-phycoerythrin.