In the proposed work the photochemistry of a number of tryptophan containing peptides will be studied. The peptides will be synthesized so that the neighboring amino acids are the same as those found for tryptophan in bovine Gamma2-crystallin lens protein. Spectroscopic photochemical studies will be used to determine which peptides have photochemistry different than that of tryptophan as a free amino acid. Studies will be done under both air saturated and degassed conditions. Peptides that show photochemistry different than free tryptophan will be used to produce larger amounts of photoproducts for isolation and identification. Spectroscopic studies on the photochemistry of bovine Gamma2-crystallin protein in its native, denatured and digested forms as well as isolated tryptophan containing peptides will be used to assess the importants of the reactions observed in the synthesizes peptides to that of the intact protein.
