Effects of anion proximity in peptide primary sequence on the rate and mechanism of leucine oxidation.

Hydroxyl radical surface mapping is a useful tool for investigating protein structure and folding. The rate of protein side-chain oxidation by the hydroxyl radical is known to be affected primarily by the chemical reactivity of the side chain and the accessibility of the reactive site to the radical. Efforts have been made to determine the inherent rate of stable product formation of each amino acid side chain, so that the rate of oxidation of an amino acid can be used to accurately estimate the average solvent accessibility of the amino acid side chain in the folded protein. However, the effects of nearby primary sequence on peptide oxidation have not been studied. Here, we examine the amounts of various oxidation products of a small peptide consisting of one leucine and one aspartic acid separated by zero to five glycine residues, as well as with modification of the N- and C-terminus. We find that the relative amounts of certain oxidation products can be heavily influenced by the primary structure of the surrounding peptide. The formation of many products, including hydroxylation, is inhibited by proximity to negative charges, while the formation of other products showed more complicated responses to changing primary sequence.