Conformational studies of anthrax polypeptide, subtilis polypeptide, and synthetic poly‐γ‐Lglutamic acid

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Abstract
Poly‐γ‐L‐glutamic acid has been synthesized by the activated pentachlorophenyl ester polymerization method and the molecule weight of the polymer was found to be 16,000. Comparative conformational studies on the synthetic and on the native polyglutamic acid mbtained from B. anthracis and B. subtilis were carried out using optical rotatory dispersion, circular dichroism, peptide absorption spectrum, and titration data. These results show that poly‐γ‐glutamic acid does not exhibit any conformational order under the conditions of investigation. At low degrees of ionization, restriction of conformational freedom via random “hypercoiling” of the chain appears likely.