Magnetic resonance study of 13C reductively methylated glycophorin and glycophorin glycopeptides

¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (n.m.r.) spectral data for ¹³C reductively methylated N-terminal tryptic glycopeptides and for ¹³C reductively methylated N-terminal glyco-octapeptides derived from homozygous glycophorins A^M and A^N are presented. Their ¹³C chemical shift data are compared with the previously published ¹³C n.m.r. data for ¹³C reductively methylated homozygous glycophorins A^M and A^N in order to investigate the means of display of the MN blood determinants by these species. The pH dependence of the ¹³C resonances of $\text{N}{}^{\mathrm{\alpha }}\text{,N-}{}^{13}\text{C}\text{]}\text{dimethyl}$ leucine of glyco-octapeptide A^N and of $\text{N}{}^{\mathrm{\alpha }}\text{,N-}{}^{13}\text{C}\text{]}\text{dimethyl}$ serine of glyco-octapepti A^M indicated that only a slight structural perturbation occurs at the N-terminus when a large portion of the glycoprotein molecule is removed. However, one structural ‘state’ of ¹³C reductively methylated glycophorin A^M is lost when the glyco-octapeptide A^M is produced. The ¹³C resonance of $\text{N}{}^{\mathrm{\alpha }}\text{,N-}{}^{13}\text{C}\text{]}\text{dimethyl}$ leucine of glycooctapeptide A^N titrated with a $\text{p}\text{K}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>a</mtext>}}$ of 7.7 (Hill coefficient $\text{～ 1}$). The ¹³C resonance of $\text{N}{}^{\mathrm{\alpha }}\text{,N-}{}^{13}\text{C}\text{]}\text{dimethyl}$ serine, on the other hand, exhibited an unusual pH dependence, indicating the existence of some possible steric constraints or hydrogen bonding in this molecule. In comparison to the data obtained for ¹³C-labelled glycooctapeptide A^M molecule, the pH dependence of the chemical shift of the ¹³C resonance of $\text{N}{}^{\mathrm{\alpha }}\text{,N-}{}^{13}\text{C}\text{]}\text{dimethyl}$ serine of tripeptide tri-L-serine is also presented. Circular dichroism (c.d.) spectra indicated that the reductive methylation technique does not cause a large perturbation of the glycophorin A molecule.