Abstract
Heating of cystine under the conditions usually used for the HCl-hydrolysis of proteins gave a small amount of bis-(2-amino-2-carboxyethyl) trisulfide (CTS). Tryptophan was great-ly degraded by the reaction with CTS under these conditions. This reaction was inhibited by thioglycolic acid or hydroquinone, indicating that it involves a free-radical mechanism. The known reaction of cystine with tryptophan under the same conditions, however, was inhibited by only thioglycolic acid. From these results, it is supposed that sulfenium ion (+SCH2CH(NH2)COOH), not CTS, arising from cystine is mainly responsible for the loss of tryptophan during the acid hydrolysis of proteins.

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