Sequence of the A-protein of coliphage MS2. I. Isolation of A-protein, determination of the NH2- and COOH-terminal sequences, isolation and amino acid sequence of the tryptic peptides.

The A-protein of coliphage MS2 was purified to a state of sufficient homogeneity to study its primary structure. The NH2-terminal sequence was determined for the first 8 residues. Comparison with the reported sequence of R17 protein (Weiner, A. M., Platt, T., and Weber, K. (1972) J. Biol. Chem. 247, 3242-3251) shows a difference at position 6 where alanine in R17 is replaced by threonine in MS2. The COOH-terminal sequence was shown to be -Arg-Leu-Ser-Arg, confirming the existence of UAG as the termination codon of the maturation protein (Comtreras, R., Ysebaert, M., Min Jou, W., and Fiers, W. (19731 Nature New Biol. 241, 99-101; Vandekerckhove, J., Nolf, F., and Van Montagu, M. C. (1973) Nature New Biol. 241, 102; Remaut E., and Fiers, W. (1972) J. Mol. Biol. 71, 243-261). Peptides obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis with trypsin were fractionated by a combination of gel filtration and paper electrophoresis and chromatography. Thirty-eight peptides were analyzed for amino acid composition and sequence. They provide information for 312 of the 393 residues of the A-protein polypeptide chain.