Exon 6 of human Jagged-1 encodes an autonomously folding unit

Abstract

Human Jagged-1 is predicted to contain 16 epidermal growth factor-like (EGF) repeats. The oxidative folding of EGF-2, despite the several conditions tested, systematically led to complex mixtures. A longer peptide spanning the C-terminal part of EGF-1 and the complete EGF-2 repeat, on the contrary, could be readily refolded. This peptide, which corresponds to the entire exon 6 of the Jagged-1 gene, thus represents an autonomously folding unit. We show that it is structured in solution, as suggested by circular dichroism and NMR spectroscopy, and displays an EGF-like disulfide bond topology, as determined by disulfide mapping.