Protein, a-helical

Alpha helices are sufficiently versatile to produce many very different classes of structures. In membrane-bound proteins, the regions inside the membranes are frequently a helices whose surfaces are covered by hydrophobic side chains suitable for the hydrophobic environment inside the membranes. Membrane-bound proteins are described in Chapter 12. Alpha helices are also frequently used to produce structural and motile proteins with various different properties and functions. These can be typical fibrous proteins such as keratin, which is present in skin, hair, and feathers, or parts of the cellular machinery such as fibrinogen or the muscle proteins myosin and dystrophin. These a-helical proteins will be discussed in Chapter 14. 

Weber, PC., Salemme, ER. Structural and functional diversity in 4-a-helical proteins. Nature 287 82-84, 1980. 

Cohen, C., Parry, D.A.D. a-Helical coiled coils and bundles how to design an a-helical protein. 

Figure 17.16 Ribbon diagram representations of the structures of domain B1 from protein G (blue) and the dimer of Rop (red). The fold of B1 has been converted to an a-helical protein like Rop by changing 50% of its amino acids sequence. (Adapted from S. Dalai et al.,...

Regan, L., DeGrado, W.F. Characterization of a helical protein designed from first principles. Science 241 976-978, 1988. 

The so-called globin proteins are an important group of a-helical proteins. These include hemoglobins and myoglobins from many species. The globin structure can be viewed as two layers of helices, with one of these layers perpendicular to the other and the polypeptide chain moving back and forth between the layers. 

Although their medium-resolution model was successful for a-helical proteins, folding P-hairpin structures have been difficult. In general, many off-lattice approaches have been tested, and although definitive proof does not exist in most cases, there appears to be a growing consensus that such off-lattice models are not sufficient. 

Fe in haem is bound in a mostly a-helical protein usually by histidine but sometimes by methionine, cysteine or tyrosine. Several such proteins are to be found in membranes. 

The iron storage protein ferritin is a small 20 kDa a-helical protein that spontaneously assembles into a hollow ball-like homo-24-mer. The outer diameter of the sphere is circa 12 nm and the inner diameter, or core diameter, is circa 8 nm. A smaller version, known as miniferritin or Dps protein (Dps = DNA protecting... 

Tropomyosin and troponin are proteins located in the thin filaments, and together with Ca2+, they regulate the interaction of actin and myosin (Fig. 43-3) [5]. Tropomyosin is an a-helical protein consisting of two polypeptide chains its structure is similar to that of the rod portion of myosin. Troponin is a complex of three proteins. If the tropomyosin-troponin complex is present, actin cannot stimulate the ATPase activity of myosin unless the concentration of free Ca2+ increases substantially, while a system consisting solely of purified actin and myosin does not exhibit any Ca2+ dependence. Thus, the actin-myosin interaction is controlled by Ca2+ in the presence of the regulatory troponin-tropomyosin complex [6]. 

Presnell SR, Cohen FE. The topological distribution of four-a-helical proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 86 1989 6592-6596. 

Figure 8. Infrared spectra of erythrocyte membranes (a) in D2O-0.1 M NaCl for 1.5 hours and (b) dry. The amide I band of the wet material shows a shoulder at 1650 cm. 1, which may arise from a-helical protein...

Membranes contain many largely a-helical proteins. Cell surface receptors often appear to have one, two, or several membrane-spanning helices (see Chapter 8). The single peptide chain of the bacterial light-operated ion pump bacteriorhodopsin (Fig. 23-45) folds back upon itself to form seven helical rods just long enough to span the bacterial membrane in which it functions.189 Photosynthetic reaction centers contain an a helix bundle which is formed from two different protein subunits (Fig. 23-31).190 A recently discovered a,a barrel contains 12 helices. Six parallel helices form an inner barrel and 6 helices antiparallel to the first 6 form an outer layer (see Fig. 2-29).191-193... 

Figure 23-3 Infrared absorbance spectra of the amide regions of proteins. (A) Spectra of insulin fibrils illustrating dichroism. Solid line, electric vector parallel to fibril axis broken line, electric vector perpendicular to fibril axis. From Burke and Rougvie.24 Courtesy of Malcolm Rougvie. See also Box 29-E. (B) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of two soluble proteins in aqueous solution obtained after subtraction of the background H20 absorption. The spectrum of myoglobin, a predominantly a-helical protein, is shown as a continuous line. That of concanavalin A, a predominantly (3-sheet containing protein, is shown as a broken line. From Haris and Chapman.14 Courtesy of Dennis Chapman.

Integral Membrane Proteins Contain Transmembrane a Helices Proteins and Lipids Can Move around within... 

Several laboratories have described systems by which synthetic linear peptide chains self-assemble into desirable secondary and tertiary structures. One self-assembly approach has been the creation of a peptide-amphiphile, whereby a peptide head group has the propensity to form a distinct structural element, while a lipophilic tail serves to align the peptide strands and induce secondary and tertiary structure formation, as well as providing a hydrophobic surface for self-association and/or interaction with other surfaces. The preparation of a dialkyl ester tail first involves the acid-catalyzed condensation of H-Glu-OH with the appropriate fatty acid alcohol to form the dialkyl ester of H-Glu-OH a typical example is shown in Scheme 7. The assembly of peptide-amphiphiles with mono- and dialkyl ester tails is shown in Scheme 8. A series of studies have demonstrated that triple-helical and a-helical protein-like molecular architecture is stabilized in the peptide-amphiphile 44,63-65 ... 

Figure 9. A schematic model of denaturation of a-helical proteins during frozen storage and its prevention by cryoprotectants. The case with dianionic cryopro-...

---