Disulfide-linked cyanogen bromide peptides of bovine fibrinogen. II. Isolation and sequence analysis of the chain constituents from the amino terminal region.

ABSTRACT

Bovine fibrinogen was cleaved with CNBr and the peptide F-CB1 which originates from the amino end of the molecule was purified by chromatographic methods. After reduction and alkylation of F-CB1 three main polypeptide chains could be identified. They were derived from the A alpha chain (F-CB1 alpha), Bbeta chain (F-CB1 beta) and gamma chain (F-CB1 gamma) of fibrinogen and consisted of 54, 143 and 78 amino acid residues, respectively. Thrombin digestion released fibrinopeptide A from F-CB1 alpha and smaller amounts of the peptide Gly-Pro-Arg while fibrinopeptide B was released from F-CB1 beta. Fragment F-CB1 gamma was resistant to thrombin. The sequences of 35 amino acid residues in the portion of F-CB1 alpha adjacent to fibrinopeptide A and of 15 residues in F-CB1 beta beyond fibrinopeptide B were determined. They differ by six and two substitutions, respectively, when compared with the homologous part in human fibrinogen. However, the first 29 amino acid residues in bovine and human F-CB1 gamma were identical. The data show that the cysteine-containing regions and the portions to the right of the site of thrombin cleavage in fibrinogen show much less interspecies variability than that known for the fibrinopeptides.