Aspartic acid-121 functions at the active site of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease.

The fully active semisynthetic enzyme formed by the non-covalent interaction of residues 1-118 of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease and a synthetic tetradecapeptide containing residues 111-124 of the enzyme has allowed a direct test of the role of aspartic acid-121 in the functioning of the molecule. Replacement of this residue by asparagine results in a derivative that is 4.5% active against cytidine 2',3'-cyclic phosphate at pH 7.0 under standard assay conditions. Further studies with the same substrate at pH 5.8 reveal that the reduced activity results entirely from a diminished catalytic efficiency and not from a decreased affinity for substrate.