A SIMPLE AND RAPID PROCEDURE FOR THE PURIFICATION OF SYNTHETIC POLYPEPTIDES BY A COMBINATION OF AFFINITY-CHROMATOGRAPHY AND METHIONINE CHEMISTRY

Chemical synthesis of bioactive peptides has become a widespread and r apidly growing technique due to automated and efficient protocols for chain assembly, For most applications, the crude synthetic product mus t be purified to remove residual reactants, failure sequences and chem ically modified peptide species, We propose here a method of universal applicability based on immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography, CNBr cleavage and use of reversible Met-sulfoxide protection. With th is method we were able to purify to homogeneity in high yield the PbCS 242-310 polypeptide corresponding to the C-terminal region of Plasmod ium berghei CS protein. (C) 1997 Federation of European Biochemical So cieties.