Acyl Carrier Protein (ACP) Fragments

Residue 1-74 of ACP, a 77-residue single-chain protein of E.coli with a 4'-phosphopantetheine prosthetic group, first seemed to be a suitable, simple model to study the chemical synthesis of small proteins. At the beginning of the investigations, however, it became clear that the synthesis of the well-known C-terminal region, ACP (65-74), was a good example of the sequence-dependent problems encountered in solid-phase peptide synthesis. Many of the problems leading to poor synthetic results were due to the development of internal secondary structures or other effects. Thus, this particularly difficult sequence became an outstanding test peptide in peptide chemistry.