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The average content of casein in yak milk is 40.2 g/L. Casein can be degraded by enzymatic digestion or food processing to produce abundant degradation peptides. International researchers have studied the degradation peptides of yak milk casein by using multiple techniques and methods, such as in vitro activity tests, cellular experiments, proteomics, bioinformatics, etc., and found that the degradation peptides have a wide range of functional activities that are beneficial to the human body, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, and immunomodulatory activities, etc., and it has been proved that the types and strengths of functional activities are closely related to the structural characteristics of the peptides. This paper describes the characteristics of yak milk proteins, the functional activities, and mechanism of action of degraded peptides. Based on the types of functional activities of yak milk casein degradation peptides, we classified and elucidated the effects of structural factors, such as peptide molecular weight, peptide length, amino acid sequence, physicochemical properties, electrical charge, hydrophobicity, spatial conformation, chain length, and the type of enzyme on these activities. It reveals the great potential of yak milk casein degradation peptides as functional active peptide resources and as auxiliary treatments for diseases. It also provides important insights for analyzing yak casein degradation peptide activity and exploring high-value utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Structure and properties of β-casein mutants in dairy products were summarized. • Impact of A1/A2 β-casein on gastrointestinal health in vivo studies was analyzed. • The detection method of β-casomorhin7 and A1/A2 β-casein was summarized. • Limitations and future directions in this promising field were presented. β-casein is the second most abundant form of casein in milk. Changes in amino acid sequence at specific positions in the primary structure of β-casein in milk will produce gene mutations that affect the physicochemical properties of dairy products and the hydrolysis site of digestive enzymes. The screening method of β-casein allele frequency detection in dairy products also has attracted the extensive attention of scientists and farmers. The A1 and A2 β-casein is the two usual mutation types, distinguished by histidine and proline at position 67 in the peptide chain. This paper summarizes the effects of A1 and A2 β-casein on the physicochemical properties of dairy products and evaluates the effects on human health, and the genotyping methods were also concluded. Impressively, this review presents possible future opportunities and challenges for the promising field of A2 β-casein, providing a valuable reference for the development of the functional dairy market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the sixth and last of a series devoted to the primary structure of bovine β-casein [1–5]. In the preceding paper, we presented a partial sequence of this protein in which 156 out of the 209 amino-acid residues were exactly positioned [5]. Only a few data were given on the tryptic peptides T2 and T3 [1] which corresponded to the unknown part of the molecule. In the present communication, we establish the amino-acid sequence of these 2 peptides, and discuss the salient features of the β-casein molecule. Bovine β-casein A2 is a phosphoprotein constituted of a single polypeptide chain containing 209 amino-acid residues. Among them are five phosphoseryl residues. From sequence data, it can be written: Asp4, Asn5, Thr9, Ser11, SerP5, Glu17, Gln22, Pro35, Gly5, Ala5, Val19, Met6, Ile10, Leu22, Tyr4, Phe9, Trp, Lys11, His5, Arg4. Its exact molecular weight is 23982, a little higher than that of αs1-casein, which is 23616 [6]. The total number of 27 amide groups (Asn + Gln) agrees well with previous data obtained by Pion et al. [7] and Peterson et al. [8]. The average hydrophobicity, calculated according to Bigelow [9], is 1330 and it places β-casein among the most hydrophobic proteins. The sequence obtained emphasizes the uneven charge distribution along the peptide chain. A high negative net charge is located in the first 50 residues. The high proline residue content (16.7%) and the rather uniform repartition of this residue exclude the possibility of a high α-helix content. Furthermore, the complete absence of segments containing more than 2 adjacent prolyl residues seems to preclude the possibility of poly-L-proline structure that was expected from optical-rotatory-dispersion studies [10]. An interesting extension of the present work is the discovery by Gordon et al [11] that γ-, TS-, R- and S-caseins are fragments of β-casein likely originating from tryptic-like cleavages of the peptide chain next to the carbonyl groups of some lysyl residues. The γ-, TS. A2- and S-, TS. B- and R-caseins respectively represent residues 29 to 209, 106 to 209 and 108 to 209. These results explain the occurrence of only one phosphorus atom in the γ-caseins, the absence of phosphorus in the TS-, R- and S-caseins [12]. Localization of the substitutions which differentiate the known variants of bovine β-casein also explains the relationship between β-, γ-, R-, S- and TS-caseins [12,13]. The NH2-terminal tryptic phosphopeptide, previously analyzed by Peterson et al. [14], has been sequenced independently by Manson and Annan [15]. Their results are identical to those reported in a preceding paper [4]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous reports [1-5], we have described some of the features of the primary structure of bovine αs1-casein. In the present work, the complete amino acid sequence has been established and the salient features of this phosphoprotein have been discussed. In the polyeptide chain, the region containing the phosphopeptides Tm1 (T1-T2), Tm1T2 and Tm1T1 [1,4,5], had only been slightly studied as yet. Because of the difficulties encountered in the breakdown of these phosphopeptides, hydrolysis with endopeptidases and exopeptidases were performed on both native and dephosphorylated peptides. It was confirmed that peptide Tm1T2 contains three hydroxy-amino acids (2 Ser, 1 Thr), but, instead of three [1], two phosphorus atoms were found with purified preparations. Partial acid hydrolysis and dephosphorylation using an orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase indicate that the two seryl residues m this peptide are O-phosphorylated. The remaining gap in the sequence of the central part of peptide Tm1T2 was bridged by studying two fragments obtained by papain digestion of the dephosphorylated preparation. Instead of four serines, postulated earlier from the results of the amino-acid composition of peptide Tm1T1 [1], five were shown to be present after detailed analysis of the fragments. Since the five phosphate groups could be ready removed by an orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase, the five seryl residues could be O-phosphorylated. The fragments obtained after hydrolysis with thermolysin of both native and dephosphorylated peptide Tra1T1 were further degraded using classical methods for the determination of the amino acid sequence. In the light of all the results obtained on this phosphoprotein (αs1-casein B), the total number of amino acid residues has been corrected to 199, instead of 198, as reported previously [1-5], and the molecular weight has been calculated to be 23616. The following amino-acid composition; Asp7, Asn8, Thr5, Ser8, SerP8, Glu25, Gln14, Pro17, Gly9, Ala9, Val11, Met5, Ile11, Leu17, Tyr10, Phe8, Lys14, His5, Trp2, Arg6, indicates that there is a higher number of acidic than basic residues in this protein. On the basis of the intrinsic dissociation constants of titratable groups in proteins [6], the negative net charge of the molecule was estimated to be 22 at pH 6.5 and 28 at pH 8.6. Since Bigelow's parameter for thc average hydrophobicity [7] of this protein is 1170, it could be considered to be a hydrophobic protein The high amount (8.5%) and uniform distribution of prolyl residues indicate that this protein has limited structuralcoiling possibilities. The polypeptide chain contains three hydrophobic regions, viz. 1-44, 90-113 and 132-199. The first two are characterized by the fact that basic residues predominate over acidic residues. The third region, where most of the aromatic residues are located, contains very few basic residues and is therefore of more acidic character. Two regions, 45-89 and 114-131, are hydrophilic. The former contains more than half of the total acidic residues, in particular seven of the total eight phosphoseryl residues. Another remarkable feature is the concentration of amino acids with carboxylic side chains, particularly glutamic acid, in the vicinity of two clusters of phosphoseryl residues. It may be noticed that the phosphoseryl residues m αs1-casein are arranged m a manner similar to those in β-casein [8]. In particular, in αs1-casein, the 62-70 region containing four phosphoseryl residues, is similar to the 13-21 region in β-casein [8]. It is interesting to point out that ail but one of the phosphoseryl residues always occur m position n with relation to a glutamyl or a phosphoseryl residue, which is in position n + 2. From this, it would appear that there is an enzymatic phosphorylation of the polypeptide chum (carried out by a phosphoryl kinase which may require a negative charge in the phosphorylation site) rather than a direct incorporation of phosphoserine into the polypeptide chain during protein synthesis. The location of the amino-acid substitutions that characterize the αs1-Casein D and the β-casein C variants has provided evidence for an enzymatic phosphorylation of casein [9]. The problem of the phosphorylated sites in αs1- and β-caseins will be discussed in a forthcoming paper. The repeating amino-acid sequences located in the two regions of αs1-casein, viz. 70-84 and 110-125, are also of interest. The primary structure of αs1-casein given here is that of the genetic variant B. The three other variants A, C and D have also been studied. The C and D variants differ from the B variant by the substitutions of Gly/Glu in position 192 [10] and ThrP/Ala in position 53 [9], respectively. The A variant is characterized by a deletion of thirteen amino-acid residues from position 14 to position 26 in the hydrophobic NH2-terminal part of the polypeptide chain [11]. Because of this deletion, there m an important change in the physico-chemical properties of αs1-casein [12, 13]. Some important features of the amino-acid-sequence determination should be noted. Firstly, the great value of maleic anhydride as a reversible-blocking reagent for amino groups of proteins [14], and the usefulness of thermolysin as a specific enzyme for degrading polypeptides [15]. Secondly, the difficulties encountered during the study of the phosphopeptides: these peptides were difficult to purify since they have similar anionic characters and only react slightly with ninhydrin during paper revelation; other difficulties have been the high destruction of phosphoserine during hydrolysis with HCl 5.7 N, the poor yield in the substractive Edman degradation when the NH2-terminal residue is a phosphoserine, and the failure of endopeptidases and exopeptidases to split off peptide bonds that are close to phosphate groups. Fortunately, alkaline phosphatase has proved to be a useful tool for removing phosphate groups, thus avoiding most of these difficulties. Since the amino-acid sequence of αs1-casein is now known, the degradation of this protein by coagulating and other proteolytic enzymes during cheese ripening may be studied. In particular, bitter peptides originating from αs1-casein may be located. As we have already briefly noted [4], it is obvious that one of the three bitter peptides isolated by Matoba et al. [16] from a tryptic hydrolysate of whole casein, was the segment 23-34 of the polypeptide chain of αs1-casein. In addition, the knowledge of the primary structure will be of help in understanding many aspects of the relations between structure and physical properties in this phosphoprotein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the fifth of a series devoted to the primary structure of the bovine β-casein A². The first two communications dealt with the isolation, analysis and positioning in the peptide chain of the tryptic and “CNBr” peptides [1,2]. The last two described the sequence of 65 residues from the carboxyl-terminus and of 32 residues from the amino-terminus [3,4]. We report here a partial sequence which includes 156 residues (out of the 209 residues of the β-casein A²) exactly positioned in the peptide chain. Two segments including 53 residues (from position 36 to 68 and from 73 to 92) remain to be analyze. In addition to the tryptic and “CNBr” peptides originating from β-casein A², two peptides issued from a tryptic digest of β-casein B were used as starting material. The position of the substitution His→Gln which differentiates the β-casein A² from the β-casein A³, already given in a preliminary communication [5], is indicated, as it is for the substitution Ser→Arg which represents one of the two differences occurring between the β-casein A² and the β-casein B. Four of the five phosphorus atoms of the β-casein A² have been previously located in the NH2-terminal tryptic peptide [4]. The fifth has been located at position 35. All the phosphorus atoms of the β-casein A² occur as phosphoserine. The complete structure of the β-casein A² will be given and discussed in the next and last paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bovine casein is one of the most known precursors of bioactive peptides among food proteins. Thus far, in silico investigations addressing casein have taken no account of the impact of modifications of amino acid residues on the feasibility of bioactive peptide release. The present study aimed to determine the effect of such modification on the possibility of release of bioactive peptides from casein during simulated digestion. The αs1-, αs2-, β-, and κ-casein sequences were deposited in the BIOPEP-UWM protein database considering phosphorylated amino acids, cysteine residues forming disulfide bridges, and pyroglutamic acid residues. The frequency of occurrence of bioactive fragments and the frequency of their release by digestive enzymes were determined for the analyzed modified and unmodified proteins. Peptides found exclusively in the sequences of unmodified proteins were deemed as false-positive results. From 1.74% (β-casein A2) to 4.41% (αs2-casein B and D) of the false-positive results were obtained for the total frequency of occurrence of bioactive fragments (sums of frequencies computed for all activities). In turn, from 1.78% (κ-casein B) to 9.18% (β-casein A2 and A3) of false-positive results were obtained for the predicted total frequency of release of bioactive peptides by the system of digestive enzymes (pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary structure of sheep para-ℵA-casein, the N-terminal portion of ℵ-casein, was established. The reduced alkylated protein was subjected to digestion with trypsin. The resulting soluble peptides were purified by a combination of Dowex I X 2 chromatography and electrophoresis and chromatography on paper; the core peptides were solubilized in 50 % formic acid and filtered on Sephadex G-50. The amino-acid sequence of these peptides was determined chiefly with a Sequencer. Alignment of thc tryptic peptides into a single chain containing 105 amino acids was determined, from basic overlap peptides (tryptic core peptides with several basic amino acids; chymotryptic peptides). Some comparisons were achieved with cow para-ℵA-casein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhizomucor miehei is an important fungus that produces aspartic proteases suitable for cheese processing. In this study, a novel aspartic protease gene (RmproB) was cloned from R. miehei CAU432 and expressed in Aspergillus niger. The amino acid sequence of RmproB shared the highest identity of 58.2% with the saccharopepsin PEP4 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. High protease activity of 1242.2 U/mL was obtained through high density fermentation in 5 L fermentor. RmproB showed the optimal activity at pH 2.5 and 40 °C, respectively. It was stable within pH 1.5–6.5 and up to 45 °C. RmproB exhibited broad substrate specificity and had Km values of 3.16, 5.88, 5.43, and 1.56 mg/mL for casein, hemoglobin, myoglobin, and bovine serum albumin, respectively. RmproB also showed remarkable milk-clotting activity of 3894.1 SU/mg and identified the cleavage of Lys21-Ile22, Leu32-Ser33, Lys63-Pro64, Leu79-Ser80, Phe105-Met106, and Asp148-Ser149 bonds in κ-casein. Moreover, duck hemoglobin was hydrolyzed by RmproB to prepare angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides with high ACE-inhibitory activity (IC50 of 0.195 mg/mL). The duck hemoglobin peptides were further produced at kilo-scale with a yield of 62.5%. High-level expression and favorable biochemical characterization of RmproB make it a promising candidate for cheese processing and production of ACE-inhibitory peptides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preparation which contains protein kinase activity capable of rephosphorylating dephosphorylated αs1 and β-caseins has been prepared from lactating bovine mammary gland. This activity is localised in the Golgi fraction and in this respect is similar to that obtained previously from rat tissue. It differs from the rat preparation in being unable to rephosphorylate dephosphorylated χ-casein. Progressive dephosphorylation of αs1 and β-caseins increases the rate of their rephosphorylation in the presence both of Ca2+ and of Mg2+. For β-casein significant non-specific phosphorylation occurs in the presence of Mg2+ while in the presence of Ca2+ the level of phosphorylation is very low. Comparison of the products of the action of this kinase on partially dephosphorylated αs1 and β-caseins indicates that seryl residues grouped with pre-existing phosphoseryl residues are phosphorylated preferentially in the presence of Mg2+, while the phosphorylation of isolated single seryl residues is promoted by Ca2+. Digests of αs1-casein, prepared by treatment with cyanogen bromide, have been fractionated and the three major peptides, separated. After dephosphorylation two of these, which between them contain all of the phosphate of αs1-casein, are rephosphorylated at sites occupied in the native protein by phosphoseryl residues, i.e., at positions 46, 48, 75 and 115 of the αs1-casein molecule. Evidence is presented which shows that this specificity of action also operates when intact αs1-casein is used as phosphate acceptor. It is concluded that the enzyme responsible for specific phosphorylation acts through recognition of an amino acid sequence and does not require the provision of a specific structural conformation in the protein substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the amino acid sequence of κB1-caseinomacropeptide, the soluble COOH-terminal fragment split from κB1-casein by rennin. κB1-casein, the major component of κB-casein, is devoid of carbohydrate and was used as starting material. This component which contains 2 methionyl residues, was cleaved with cyanogen bromide. The 3 expected peptides designated as CN peptides, were separated first on Sephadex G-50 and further purified on Dowex 50-X2.

Simple Summary: Recently, dairy proteins, in addition to their basic nutritional role in the diet, were recognized as a source of bioactive peptides. Such peptides are encoded within the primary structure of the protein and can be released by enzymatic hydrolysis. The growing interest in the development of functional foods for the benefit of consumer health led to a recent increase in research on the production of bioactive peptides from different matrices and production methods. The use of aspartic proteases from stigmas of mature artichoke (Cynara scolymus L.) flowers to obtain hydrolytic enzymes (cinarases) in the production of bioactive peptides would involve the utilization of an agricultural residue of a plant species of great socio-economic importance. In the present study, the characterization of the optimal hydrolysis conditions of artichoke flower extracts was carried out for the production of peptides from bovine casein. Furthermore, the angiotensin-converting enzyme-I inhibitory activity and the antioxidant capacity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) free radicals in vitro were determined for the obtained hydrolysates. The results revealed that the water-soluble extract of artichoke flower could be suitable for the production of bioactive peptides from whole bovine casein. The aim of this work is to establish the most suitable proteolysis conditions to obtain bovine casein hydrolysates containing peptides with antioxidant and antihypertensive capacity. To this end, the proteolytic activity of Cynara scolymus L. flower extracts was characterized on whole bovine casein, evaluating the effect of several factors (pH, temperature, substrate concentration, enzyme concentration, and hydrolysis time). The optimal conditions to carry out the hydrolysis with the C. scolymus L. extract were as follows: pH 6.2, 50 °C, and 0.023 mg·mL−1 of extract-protein concentration. A Michaelis constant (Km) value of 5.66 mg·mL−1 and a maximum rate of reaction (Vmax) of 8.47 mUAbs∙min−1 were observed. The optimal hydrolysis time was 17 h. The casein hydrolysates obtained with these conditions contained peptides with antioxidant activity (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging capacity: 30.89%; Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) against 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) free radical (ABTS●+): 4.43 mM Trolox equivalent·mg−1 peptide) and antihypertensive activity, showing 55.05% angiotensin-converting enzyme-I inhibition in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]