Towards the total chemical synthesis of integral membrane proteins:: a general method for the synthesis of hydrophobic peptide-αthioester building blocks

Modification of a peptide-(alpha)thioester with a sequence of six arginines on the thioester leaving group can render soluble all peptides derived from a polytopic integral membrane protein. This strategy greatly simplifies the synthesis of peptide-(alpha)thioester building blocks for the total chemical synthesis of integral membrane proteins by native chemical ligation. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.