the invention provides a process for amidating a desired peptide comprising cleaving a substrate polypeptide at a x 1 - cysteine sequence , wherein x1 is the amino acid at the peptide carboxyl - terminus and cysteine is the first amino acid of a palladium cleavage site comprising the sequence cysteine - x2 - x3 , wherein x2 is any amino acid , x3 is an amino acid selected from the group consisting of cysteine , histidine , or methionine , and wherein the carboxylterminus of the peptide is amidated upon cleavage at the x1 - cysteine sequence .