Selenocysteine (Sec) is an interesting amino acid, which is involved in the active sites of several enzymes and is characterized as the 21st amino acid genetically coded in DNA.
Some efficient organic reactions have been developed for the synthesis of Sec derivatives.
We recently succeeded a new stepwise conversion from cysteine (Cys) derivatives to selenocysteine (Sec) derivatives in moderate yields by exploiting a transformation reaction from a disulfide (SS) to a diselenide (SeSe) bond (Tetrahedron Lett., 2006,47,3861-3863).
Our protocol will be extended to the chemical conversion of Cys to Sec residues in a polypeptide chain and a protein. |
