Studies on Reduced Wool. VII. The Complexity of One of the Major Components

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A major component (component 8) isolated from reduced and carboxymethylated wool has been studied chemically after digestion with trypsin and after reaction with cyanogen bromide. The peptides in tryptic digests of component 8 are present in greater numbers and am slier yields than expected for a substantially pure protein with the same amino acid composition. The products obtained after cyanogen bromide degradation were fractionated by gel-filtration and DEAE-cellulose chromatog-raphy. From the yield of products and the distribution of homoserine in the fractions it is concluded that component 8 is heterogeneous. The products obtained by cyanogen bromide degradation of a 2nd major component (component 7) are different from those given by component 8. Both components are probably best described as a family of related proteins. There seems no possibility that a sizeable fraction of these components can be isolated as a single polypeptide chain of unique chemical sequence.