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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Single-molecule Manipulation of G-quadruplexes by Magnetic Tweezers
Published on: September 19, 2017
Trapping a folding intermediate of the alpha-helix: stabilization of the pi-helix
Ross Chapman1, John L Kulp, Anupam Patgiri
1Department of Chemistry, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA.
Abstract:
We report the design, synthesis, and characterization of a short peptide trapped in a pi-helix configuration. This high-energy conformation was nucleated by a preorganized pi-turn, which was obtained by replacing an N-terminal intramolecular main chain i and i + 5 hydrogen bond with a carbon-carbon bond. Our studies highlight the nucleation parameter as a key factor contributing to the relative instability of the pi-helix and allow us to estimate fundamental helix-coil transition parameters for this conformation.
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