Abstract
Cysteine residues ubiquitously stabilize tertiary and quaternary protein structure by formation of disulfide bridges. Here we investigate another linking interaction that involves sulfhydryl groups of cysteines, namely intra- and intermolecular methylene-bridges between cysteine and lysine residues. A number of crystal structures possessing such a linkage were identified in the Protein Data Bank. Inspection of the electron density maps and re-refinement of the nominated structures unequivocally confirmed the presence of Lys-CH2 -Cys bonds in several cases.