Tripleurin XIIc: Peptide Folding Dynamics in Aqueous and Hydrophobic Environment Mimic Using Accelerated Molecular...

Peptaibols are a special class of fungal peptides with an acetylated N-terminus and a C-terminal 1,2-amino alcohol along with non-standard amino acid residues. New peptaibols named tripleurins were recently identified from a strain of the filamentous fungal species Trichoderma pleuroti, which is known to cause green mould disease on cultivated oyster mushrooms. To understand the mode of action of these peptaibols, the three-dimensional structure of tripleurin (TPN) XIIc, an 18-mer peptide, was elucidated using an enhanced sampling method, accelerated MD, in water and chloroform solvents. Non-standard residues were parameterized by the Restrained Electrostatic Potential (RESP) charge fitting method. The dihedral distribution indicated towards a right-handed helical formation for TPN XIIc in both solvents. Dihedral angle based principal component analysis revealed a propensity for a slightly bent, helical folded conformation in water solvent, while two distinct conformations were revealed in chloroform: One that folds into highly bent helical structure that resembles a beta-hairpin and another with an almost straight peptide backbone appearing as a rare energy barrier crossing event. The hinge-like movement of the terminals was also observed and is speculated to be functionally relevant. The convergence and efficient sampling is addressed using Cartesian PCA and Kullback-Leibler divergence methods.