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Sequence chemistry

Peptide Chemistry Calculator

Type or paste any amino-acid sequence and instantly see molecular weight, isoelectric point, net charge at any pH, and Hopp & Woods hydrophilicity per residue — with terminal-modification support and one-click load from the site's peptide dataset.

Inputs

Loads a known-clean linear sequence from the site's peptide dataset.

15 valid residues parsed
7.40
03.5710.514

Results

Length

15 aa

Molecular weight

1419.55 Da

Isoelectric point (pI)

3.55

Net charge @ pH 7.40

-2.00

Avg HW hydrophilicity

0.51

Hopp & Woods (1981)

Hydrophilic residues

27%

Net charge vs pH

q=003.5710.514pI 3.55pH 7.4pH

Hydrophilicity per residue (Hopp & Woods)

GEPPPGKPADDAGLV0+3.43.4

Calculations run entirely in your browser. pKa reference values are Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry typicals; hydrophilicity scores are from Hopp & Woods (PNAS, 1981).

Amino-acid composition

Counts and percentages for the parsed sequence, sorted by frequency.

ResidueCount%Residue massSide pKaHW score
P (Pro) Proline426.7%97.12 Da0.0
G (Gly) Glycine320.0%57.05 Da0.0
A (Ala) Alanine213.3%71.08 Da-0.5
D (Asp) Aspartate213.3%115.09 Da3.653.0
E (Glu) Glutamate16.7%129.12 Da4.253.0
K (Lys) Lysine16.7%128.17 Da10.533.0
L (Leu) Leucine16.7%113.16 Da-1.8
V (Val) Valine16.7%99.13 Da-1.5

Formulas used

Molecular weight MW = Σ residueMass(aa) + H₂O + Δ(N-term) + Δ(C-term). Residue masses are standard average values; the water molecule accounts for the free termini, and each terminal modification carries a documented mass delta.

Net charge at pH is calculated by summing the Henderson-Hasselbalch contribution of every ionisable group: q_acid = −1 / (1 + 10^(pKa − pH)) and q_base = +1 / (1 + 10^(pH − pKa)). Side-chain pKa values follow Lehninger reference typicals (Asp 3.65, Glu 4.25, His 6.00, Cys 8.33, Tyr 10.07, Lys 10.53, Arg 12.48); α-amino 9.69 and α-carboxyl 2.34 are included only when the corresponding terminus is free.

Isoelectric point is found by bisecting [0, 14] until the net-charge magnitude is below 10⁻⁶ or the bracket width falls under 0.005 pH units — about 12 iterations in practice, well within the precision of any experimental measurement.

Hydrophilicity per residue uses the Hopp & Woods (1981) scale, which assigns each amino acid a single hydrophilicity score from −3.4 (most hydrophobic) to +3.0 (most hydrophilic). The summary shows the mean score across the sequence and the percentage of residues with a positive score.

What this tool does not handle

  • Disulfide bridges — the linear MW does not subtract the 2 Da lost on bridge formation.
  • D-amino acids — Ipamorelin, Hexarelin, PT-141, Melanotan II and similar peptides have D-residues or unnatural side chains and are not represented in the linear-only calculator.
  • Cyclic backbone — closing a head-to-tail amide bond removes one further water; subtract 18 Da from the linear value for cyclic peptides.
  • Metal coordination — GHK-Cu's copper(II) ion is not added to the MW; report the apo-peptide mass + 63.5 Da for the Cu(II) complex.

References

  • Lehninger, Nelson & Cox, Principles of Biochemistry — reference pKa values used throughout.
  • Hopp T.P. & Woods K.R., Prediction of protein antigenic determinants from amino acid sequences, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78:3824–3828 (1981).

Related tools

Frequently asked questions

How is the molecular weight calculated?
The calculator sums the average residue masses of every amino acid in the sequence and adds one water molecule (18.02 Da) for the free termini. Terminal modifications (acetyl, biotinyl, pyroglutamyl, amide) adjust the mass according to documented increments.
What pKa values are used for the net-charge formula?
Side-chain pKa values follow Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry typical references: Asp 3.65, Glu 4.25, His 6.00, Cys 8.33, Tyr 10.07, Lys 10.53, Arg 12.48; α-amino 9.69, α-carboxyl 2.34. Net charge at any pH is computed via the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation across every ionisable group.
How is the isoelectric point (pI) found?
The calculator runs a bisection search over pH 0–14, evaluating net charge at the midpoint each iteration. It converges to within ±0.01 pH units (well below experimental precision) in fewer than 14 iterations.
What is the Hopp & Woods hydrophilicity scale?
A 1981 scale assigning each residue a hydrophilicity score from −3.4 (Trp, most hydrophobic) to +3.0 (Arg/Asp/Glu/Lys, most hydrophilic). Originally developed to predict antigenic determinants on protein surfaces, it is still useful for spotting putative surface-exposed segments in short peptides.
Can I paste a 3-letter sequence?
Yes. The parser accepts both 1-letter codes ("GEPPPGKPADDAGLV") and 3-letter codes with or without separators ("Gly-Glu-Pro" / "GlyGluPro" / "GLY GLU PRO"). It auto-detects the format and converts to canonical 1-letter codes for the calculation.
Why is my cyclic or disulfide-bridged peptide MW slightly off?
The linear-MW calculation does not subtract the 2 Da typically lost when a disulfide forms or the water released when a cyclic peptide bond closes. For peptides like oxytocin (Cys1-Cys6 bridge), subtract 2 Da from the displayed MW for the bridged form.
Why are PT-141, Melanotan II, Ipamorelin and Hexarelin missing from the dataset list?
Those peptides contain D-amino acids, cyclic structures, or non-proteinogenic residues that cannot be represented in a linear 20-amino-acid alphabet. The calculator focuses on the standard residues and only loads peptides with clean linear sequences from the dataset.