Reductive Cleavage of Disulfide Bridges in Ribonuclease

Abstract

This article was the first of many studies that were generally concerned with the eventual total synthesis of the protein. It contained several original observations that would lead to the conclusion that the refolding of the ribonuclease molecule after full denaturation by reductive cleavage of its four disulfide bonds required that only one of the one hundred five possible pairings of eight sulfhydryl groups to form four disulfide linkages take place.