Confirmation of the 1–20 amino acid sequence of human adrenocorticotrophin

Abstract

The tryptic fragments of natural human adrenocorticotrophin, were separated by countercurrent distribution and a correction in positions 25, 26, 27 and 30 was made by Riniker et al. (1972) in a study of the fragment containing residues 22–39. We have purified the remaining tryptic fragments, namely residues 1–8, 9–15, 16–21 and 17–21, by using ion-exchange chromatography on CM-cellulose and have carried out sequence determination by using the subtractive Edman degradation procedure and digestion with aminopeptidase M and carboxypeptidase B. These results have confirmed the proposed sequence for human adrenocorticotrophin in regions 6–7, 10–14 and 17–20, which had previously been arrived at only by analogy with the invariant sequence found in the three other mammalian adrenocorticotrophin species that had been investigated.