Chromatography of Pepsin and Chymotrypsin Digests of Egg White Lysozyme on Phosphocellulose.

The present study was initiated as an attempt to evaluate the usefulness of the cellulose ion exchange agents for peptide chromatography. Since these techniques are of immediate application to the determination of amino acid sequence, different groups of peptides from the same protein have been studied with the hope that these might yield sufficient information to permit the elucidation of the entire amino acid sequence of the parent protein. The enzyme from hen’s egg white which exhibits lysozyme activity against bacterial cell walls of Micrococcus lysodeikticus was chosen (1) because it is readily available and has served as a useful model protein in the past. This communication reports the application of phosphorylated cellulose to the separation of the peptides derived from chymotrypsin or pepsin digestion of reduced, carboxymethylated egg white lysozyme. In the accompanying papers, further studies are reported from which the entire amino acid sequence of this protein may be deduced.