A model for hydropathy-based peptide interactions

Two peptides are specified when the noncoding DNA strand is read in the 5' to 3', or the 3' to 5' direction, and both peptides form strong complexes with the natural peptide, as found by J. E. Blalock and K. L. Bost with ACTH [1986) Biochem. J. 234, 679-683). We report here that strong hydropathic complementarity (pairing of hydrophobic with hydrophilic residues), the assumed basis of these interactions, is obtained only if the peptide resulting from reading in the 3' to 5' direction is aligned parallel to the natural peptide, or if the peptide derived by opposite reading of the DNA is aligned antiparallel to it. Complementary is abolished in other alignments, including all staggered ones. In the appropriate alignments of the constructs the amino acid residues opposite one another are specified by a pair of complementary codons in the DNA; Blalock and Bost have indeed shown that complementary pairs of codons specify amino acids of opposite hydropathy. A model is proposed to explain how hydropathic complementarity can lead to interaction between peptides. We propose that in the interacting peptides hydrophilic residues of both chains are oriented toward the aqueous solvent, while the hydrophobic ones form the interphase between the two chains. Tight packing is made possible by the stipulation that whenever a hydrophilic residue turns toward the aqueous phase, a space is liberated which can accommodate a hydrophobic residue from the opposing chain. This entropy-driven configuration can lead to strong interactions between portions of peptides consisting of hydropathically complementary residues.