Biomolecules and Chemistry in Everyday Life 1 Question 29

31. A tetrapeptide has - $\mathrm{COOH}$ group on alanine. This produces glycine (Gly), valine (Val), phenyl alanine (Phe) and alanine (Ala), on complete hydrolysis. For this tetrapeptide, the number of possible sequences (primary structures) with $-\mathrm{NH}_{2}$ group attached to a chiral centre is

(2013 Adv.)

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Solution:

  1. PLAN A peptide linkage is hydrolysed to two free amino acids.

$C^{*}$ is chiral carbon tetrapeptide has four amino acids joined by three peptide linkage.

  • $\mathrm{COOH}$ group is on alanine part, thus it is at fixed $\mathrm{C}$-terminal position in each combination.

Glycine is optically inactive thus it cannot be on the Nterminal side. Thus, possible combinations are

Phe-Gly-Val-Ala, Phe-Val-Gly-Ala, Val-Gly-Phe-Ala, Val-Phe-Gly-Ala

Thus, in all four combinations are possible.