High-resolution conformation of gramicidin A in a lipid bilayer by solid-state NMR

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of uniformly aligned preparations of gramicidin A in lipid bilayers has been used to elucidate a high-resolution dimeric structure of the cation channel conformation solely on the basis of the amino acid sequence and 144 orientational constraints. This initial structure defines the helical pitch as single-stranded, fixes the number of residues per turn at six to seven, specifies the helix sense as right-handed, and identifies the hydrogen bonds. Refinement of this initial structure yields reasonable hydrogen-bonding distances with only minimal changes in the torsion angles.