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Short, solubilized polyalanines are conformational chameleons: exceptionally helical if N- and C-capped with helix
J S Miller1, R J Kennedy, D S Kemp
1Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Biochemistry
|January 10, 2001
Abstract:
Isolating spacers introduced between solubilizing lysine regions and a polyalanine core permit rigorous characterization of context-free alanine helices. The preferred building blocks for isolating spacers are amino acids with rigid, extended conformations such as proline, isonipecotic acid, and tert-leucine. Replacing isolating spacers by conventional N- and C-caps dramatically increases the helicity of dodecaalanine. Solubilized, isolated polyalanines provide optimal tools for testing polypeptide helicity algorithms, central to resolution of the protein folding problem.