Abstract
IN a note which appeared recently in these columns, Speakman and Hirst1 recorded comparisons of the work necessary to stretch wool fibres in water, in acids, and after treatment with nitrous acid. The conclusion they reached was that acids disrupt a linkage of the type R1 - COO - NH3 - R2 in the keratin molecule formed from acidic and basic units in adjacent polypeptide chains. Taking the figures quoted by Marston 2 for the amino-acid composition of wool, it was shown that the dibasic aspartic and glutamic acids were collectively present in quantity roughly proportional to that required on the assumption that they entered into a linkage of the type postulated with the e-amino group of lysine and the guanidine group of arginine.
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RIMINGTON, C. Constitution of the Keratin Molecule. Nature 129, 580–581 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129580c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129580c0
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