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Updated: Oct 20, 2025

Self-Assembly of Gamma-Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids into Complex Nanostructures in Organic Solvent Mixtures
Published on: June 26, 2020
Inter-hairpin linker sequences determine the structure of the ββ-solenoid fold: a "bottom-up" study of pneumococcal
Beatriz Maestro1, Héctor Zamora-Carreras2, M Ángeles Jiménez3
1Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain; Instituto de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación en Biotecnología Sanitaria de Elche (IDiBE), Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain.
Abstract:
The ββ-solenoid structures are part of many proteins involved in the recognition of bacterial cell wall. They are elongated polypeptides consisting of repeated β-hairpins connected by linker sequences and disposed around a superhelical axis stabilised by short-range interactions. Among the most studied ββ-solenoids are those belonging to the family of choline-binding modules (CBMs) from the respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) and its bacteriophages, and their properties have been employed to develop several biotechnological and biomedical tools. We have carried out a theoretical, spectroscopic and thermodynamic study of the ββ-solenoid structure of the CBM from the pneumococcal LytA autolysin using peptides of increasing length containing 1-3 repeats of this structure. Our results show that hints of native-like tertiary structure are only observed with a minimum of three β-hairpins, corresponding to one turn of the solenoid superhelix, and identify the linker sequences between hairpins as the major directors of the solenoid folding. This study paves the way for the rational structural engineering of ββ-solenoids aimed to find novel applications.
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