The identification of protected tyrosine residues in iron-ovotransferrin.

Tetranitromethane reacts with essentially all 21 tyrosine residues of iron-free ovotransferrin. In iron-ovotransferrin, 7 mol of tyrosine/mol of protein are unreactive. Peptides containing the unreactive tyrosine residues were isolated from digests of nitrated iron-ovotransferrin. By comparing the structures of the peptides with the amino acid sequence of ovotransferrin it is found that there are ten protected residues occupying positions 42, 82, 92, 188, 319, 415, 431, 521 and 524 in the polypeptide chain. The problem of identifying the tyrosine residues that form bonds with the metal atoms is discussed.