Chemical synthesis of yeast mitochondrial ATP synthase membranous subunit 8

Chemical synthesis of highly hydrophobic peptides and proteins remains a ch allenging problem. Strong interchain associations within the peptide-resin matrix have to be overcome. A synthetic strategy for solid phase peptide sy nthesis is proposed, mainly based on prolonged coupling time using aprotic polar solvent mixtures. A tailored chromatographic purification was require d to obtain a sample sufficiently pure for structural analysis. In this wor k, the total chemical synthesis of the membrane-embedded yeast mitochondria l ATP synthase subunit 8 is described. The quality of the synthetic protein was checked by electrospray mass spectrometry, its tendency to adopt alpha -helical secondary structure is evidenced by circular dichroism spectroscop y. Copyright (C) 1999 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.