Characterization of the sulfated glycopeptide of chicken pepsinogen

Abstract

S-sulfonated chicken pepsinogen was digested with TPCK-trypsin; large tryptic peptides, separated on Sephadex G-25 fine, were subjected to additional cleavage with α-chymotrypsin. The hold-up fraction of the chymotryptic digest from the Sephadex G-25 column, was resolved by high voltage electrophoresis. The three most acidic zones contained glycopeptides of identical amino acid sequence Val-Ser-Thr-Asn-Glu-Thr-Val-Tyr, yet differed in the composition of the sugar moiety. These glycopeptides, moreover, bear different numbers of sulfate groups which enabled the resolution of the peptides. The most acidic glycopeptide contains 7 glucosamine residues, 3 mannose residues and 5 sulfate groups, the second one 6 glucosamine residues, 3 mannose residues and 4 sulfate groups and the slowest, minority glycopeptide, 5 glucosamine residues, 2 mannose residues and 2 sulfate groups. The entire sugar moiety is attached to one of the chain viaasparagine. In other experiments the glycopeptides were also isolated from the thermolytic digest of chicken pepsin; their C-terminal sequence was shorter by two amino acid residues. The tentative assignment of the glycopeptides to the amino acid sequence of pepsinogen resulted from the analysis of the limited tryptic digest of the whole protein molecule. Chicken pepsinogen is glycosylated at the site of the chain occupied by a phosphoserine residue in hog pepsinogen A.