Figure 1
A. Thiol-disulfide exchange mechanism: in the pH range above 8, cysteine thiols are readily converted to thiolate anions (RS-), which are potent nucleophiles. RS- anions attack a disulfide bond, displacing one sulfur atom and forming a new bond with the other sulfur atom (nucleophilic substitution). The rate-determining step of this concerted process is the formation of a transition state with a partial transfer of the negative charge (δ-) over the three sulfur atoms. B. The formation of a disulfide bond on the polypeptide chain (solid curve) with the help of a small molecule reagent (thiol form: RSH, disulfide form: RSSR). The two steps both proceed via a thiol-disulfide exchange reaction. The first step shown is intermolecular and the second intramolecular. The rate of the intramolecular step is relevant to protein folding, since it also involves conformational changes.