a <- c('(acetyl)RKJOEQLKQ', 'LDFEION(acetyl)EFNEOW')
gsub('\\(acetyl\\)(.)', '(\\1)', a)
# => [1] "(R)KJOEQLKQ" "LDFEION(E)FNEOW"
YSA8LSBjKCcoYWNldHlsKVJLSk9FUUxLUScsICdMREZFSU9OKGFjZXR5bClFRk5FT1cnKQpnc3ViKCdcXChhY2V0eWxcXCkoLiknLCAnKFxcMSknLCBhKQojID0+IFsxXSAiKFIpS0pPRVFMS1EiICAgICAiTERGRUlPTihFKUZORU9XIgo=