Summary
Amino acid amides effectively reacted to produce polypeptides in response to microwave heating during repeated hydration-dehydration cycles. The polypeptides, formed from a mixture of glycinamide, alaninamide, valinamide, and aspartic acid α-amide, had molecular weights ranging from 1000 to 4000 daltons. Amino acids were incorporated into the polypeptides in proportion to the starting concentrations, with the exception of glycine whose incorporation was 1.5 times higher than that of the other amino acids. The polypeptides had some definite secondary structure, such as α-helix and β-sheet, in aqueous solution. This reaction provides not only a convenient method for abiotic peptide formation but also a convenient method for the chemical synthesis of peptides.
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Abbreviations
- CD:
-
circular dichroism
- IR:
-
infrared spectroscopy
- UV:
-
ultraviolet spectroscopy
- MW:
-
molecular weight
- TFA:
-
trifluoroacetic acid
- TFE:
-
2,2,2-trifluoroethanol
- MeOH:
-
methanol
- D2O:
-
deuterium oxide
- poly(GAVD):
-
polypeptides containing glycine, alanine, valine, and aspartic acid
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Yanagawa, H., Kojima, K., Ito, M. et al. Synthesis of polypeptides by microwave heating I. Formation of polypeptides during repeated hydration-dehydration cycles and their characterization. J Mol Evol 31, 180–186 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02109494
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02109494