Hydrogen bonding motifs of protein side chains: descriptions of binding of arginine and amide groups

The modes of hydrogen bonding of arginine, asparagine, and glutamine side chains and of urea have been examined in small-molecule crystal structures in the Cambridge Structural Database and in crystal structures of protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein complexes. Analysis of the hydrogen bonding patterns of each by graph-set theory shows three patterns of rings (R) with one or two hydrogen bond acceptors and two donors and with eight, nine, or six atoms in the ring, designated R2(2)(8), R2(2)(9), and R1(2)(6). These three patterns are found for arginine-like groups and for urea, whereas only the first two patterns R2(2)(8) and R2(2)(9) are found for asparagine- and glutamine-like groups. In each case, the entire system is planar within 0.7 A or less. On the other hand, in macromolecular crystal structures, the hydrogen bonding patterns in protein-nucleic acid complexes between the nucleic acid base and the protein are all R2(2)(9), whereas hydrogen bonding between Watson-Crick-like pairs of nucleic acid bases is R2(2)(8). These two hydrogen bonding arrangements [R2(2)(9)] and R2(2)(8)] are predetermined by the nature of the groups available for hydrogen bonding. The third motif identified, R1(2)(6), involves hydrogen bonds that are less linear than in the other two motifs and is found in proteins.