DISTRIBUTION OF GLUTAMINE AND ASPARAGINE RESIDUES AND THEIR NEAR NEIGHBORS IN PEPTIDES AND PROTEINS

In a statistical study of neighboring residues in 1465 peptides and proteins comprising 450,431 residues, it was found that the preferences for residues neighboring to glutamine and asparagine residues are consistent with the hypothesis that the rates of deamidation of these residues are of biological significance. Some dipeptide and tripeptide structures have special usefulness and some are especially undesirable. More such structures exist for amide residues than for other residues, and their specific types are those most relevant to the deamidation of amide residues under biological conditions.