IUPAC-IUB COMi\lISSION ON BIOCHEMICAL NOMENCLATURE (CBN)
The numerous studies on the physical, chemical, arid biological propertics of synthetic polypeptides have brought with them different ways of describing, in abbreviated form, these products, whose structures are often incompletely known. The use of a variety of nomenclatures complicates the literature; hence, a consistent and clearly defined system for naming such polypeptides is desirable. The proposals set forth here, which represent the consensus of many discussions and suggestions, should aid in systematizing the nomenclature of a wide variety of synthetic polypeptides.
These proposals are based in large part on the abbreviated nomenclature devised by Gill' and by Sela and others.* They utilize the abbreviations and conventions set forth in Section 2 of "Revised Tentative Rules for Abbreviations and Symbols of Chemical Names of Special Interest in Biological C h e m i s t r ~" ~ and in "Abbreviated Designation of Amino Acid Derivatives and pep tide^"^ and they add only those terms or conventions needed for the specification of polymers but not encompassed by these schemes.
The abbreviations and conventions of the previous Tentative Rules3s4 used in this nomenclature system are summarized as follows. The abbreviations of the amino acid residues and their derivatives or modifications are those indicated in the Tentative R ~l e s ~, ~ or formulated according to the principles set out in them. Hyphens or commas between the symbols for residues or groups of residues mean known or unknown sequence, respectively, and involve only the a-NH2 and a-COOH groups (the * Document of the IUPAC-IUB Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature (CBN), approved by IUPAC and IUB in October, 1967, and published by permission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the International Union of Biochemistry, and the official publishers of IUPAC, AIessrs. Butterworths Scientific Publications.