How do I determine the net charge of a peptide?

? asked 3 years ago Hi, I'm having a bit of trouble determining the net charge of a peptide chain. The chain is CYS-ASN-GLU-ARG-HIS-LYS-TYR-ASP a. What is the net peptide charge at pH = 1 b. What is the net peptide charge at pH = 7 c. What is the net peptide charge at pH = 14 I'd appreciate any help on this, thanks.

1st you can find the net charge at pH = 7 by going through each amino acid and determining if it's a polar charged amino acid with respect to the side chain. The (+) charged amino acids at pH 7 are lysine, arginine and histidine (because of the NH3+ on the side chain), and the (-) charged amino acids at pH 7 are aspartate and glutamate (due to the COO- on the side chain) Also know that the amino acids on each end of the peptide have a charge because of the free alpha groups (cys has a + charge because of the free alpha NH3+ and ASP has an extra (-) charge because of the free alpha COO-). I don't think you have to worry about any of the alpha groups of the other amino acids because they are tied up in peptide bonds. Add up all the charges and see what you get. To figure out the charges at pH 1 and 14, just know that at pH<pKa the H+ is on (COO- will be neutral COOH, NH3+ will stay NH3+) and at pH>pKa the H+ is off. You'll need to look up the pKa's for the relative side chain groups of the charged amino acids and the pKa's for the alpha NH3 on cys, and alpha COO- on asp. Hope this helped.