Alanine Scan

Alanine Scanning is able to identify specific amino acid residues responsible for a peptide’s activity. Alanine is used to substitute each residue sequentially.

Substitution of an essential amino acid results in a reduction in peptide activity, with the degree of activity reduction taken as a relative measure of the importance of the amino acid being substituted.

Alanine is the smallest chiral amino acid and is therefore most commonly used as the scanning substitute. However, any other amino acid may be used. Please contact us directly for more information on alternate scanning strategies.