Neighboring pyrrolidine amide participation in thioether oxidation. Methionine as a "hopping" site.

Methionine residues have been shown to function as efficient "hopping" sites in long-range electron transfer in model polyprolyl peptides. We suggest that a key to this ability of methionine is stabilization of the transient sulfur radical cation by neighboring proline amide participation. That is, in a model system a neighboring pyrrolidine amide lowers the oxidation potential of the thioether by over 0.5 V by formation of a two-center three-electron SO bond.