Question

Devise a synthesis of the following dipeptide from amino acid starting materials.

Short answer

Protecting Amine Group

Protecting –COOH group.

Synthesis of Phe-Leu.

Step-by-step solution

Synthesis of Dipeptide

The general synthesis of dipeptide involves the reaction between two amino acids. The C-terminal and N-terminal amino acids can be identified based on the required dipeptide.

The respective functional groups can be protected by using suitable reagents and reacting.

The required dipeptide structure

The structure of the Phe-Leu dipeptide is as shown below:

It has N-terminal phenylalanine and C-terminal Leucine.

So, the amine group in phenylalanine and the –COOH group of Leucine should be protected with the reagents Boc and benzyl alcohol, respectively.

 Synthesis

The synthesis of Phe-Leuinvolves the below-shown steps:

Protecting Amine Group

Protecting –COOH group

Synthesis of Phe-Leu.