Polypeptide determination

Fig. 13. Structures of polypeptides determined by MAS solid-state NMR. The PDB file numbers are shown where available, (a) The dipeptide glycyl isoleucine, (b) The tripeptide iV-formyl-L-Met-L-Eeu-L-Phe-OH. (c) The a-spectrin SH3 domain, (d) An 11-amino acid stretch of transthyretin...

Table 22.4 shows the values of Rn for some solid polypeptides, determined by using Equations (22.1a-e) through the observation of the amide carbonyl-carbon chemical shift as listed are solid polyglycine[(Gly) ], poly(L-alanine)[(Ala) ], poly(L-valine)[(Val) ], and poly(L-leucine)[(Leu) ] with several conformations such as righthanded a-helix (aR-helix), j8-sheet, 3i- and (UL-helix. In these homopolypeptides, the Rn o values determined for the /3-sheet form are constant in the range of 3.0-3.1 A, regardless of amino acid residue species. The Rn-.-o value for the 3i-helix in (Gly) is... 

Fluorescent dye-polypeptide conjugates were prepared by labeling with either fluorescein isothiocyanate adsorbed onto Celite (51) or with 1-dimethylaminonaphthalene sulfonyl chloride (DNS) dissolved in ethanol (65). The degree of labeling was determined from the amount of dye on the polypeptide estimated by fluorescent intensity or ultraviolet absorption measurements and from the concentration of the polypeptide determined by Kjeldahl nitrogen. There were generally two to four dye residues per polypeptide molecule. 

In a polyamide such as nylon the band is at 1545 cm An extensive study has shown that the conformation of polypeptides determines the position of the band [ ]. In polyacrylamide the amide II band coincides with the carbonyl vibration... 

Studies of electrical interactions in proteins, polypeptides, and amino acids started over 60 years ago [1]. To a large extent, electrostatic properties of proteins are determined by the ability of certain amino acids to exchange protons with their environment and the dependence of these processes on pH. The proton occupies a special position as a promoter and iiuxliator in... 

Much of protein engineering concerns attempts to explore the relationship between protein stmcture and function. Proteins are polymers of amino acids (qv), which have general stmcture +H3N—CHR—COO , where R, the amino acid side chain, determines the unique identity and hence the stmcture and reactivity of the amino acid (Fig. 1, Table 1). Formation of a polypeptide or protein from the constituent amino acids involves the condensation of the amino-nitrogen of one residue to the carboxylate-carbon of another residue to form an amide, also called peptide, bond and water. The linear order in which amino acids are linked in the protein is called the primary stmcture of the protein or, more commonly, the amino acid sequence. Only 20 amino acid stmctures are used commonly in the cellular biosynthesis of proteins (qv). 

J Moult, MNG James. An algorithm for determining the conformation of polypeptide segments m proteins by systematic search. Proteins 1 146-163, 1986. 

In this way each amino acid residue is associated with two conformational angles and y. Since these are the only degrees of freedom, the conformation of the whole main chain of the polypeptide is completely determined when the ([) and y angles for each amino acid are defined with high accuracy. 

Figure 1.6 Diagram showing a polypeptide chain where the main-chain atoms are represented as rigid peptide units, linked through the atoms. Each unit has two degrees of freedom it can rotate around two bonds, its Ca-C bond and its N-Ca bond. The angle of rotation around the N-Ca bond is called phi (cj)) and that around the Co-C bond is called psi (xj/). The conformation of the main-chain atoms is therefore determined by the values of these two angles for each amino acid.

Figure 2.11 Beta sheets are usuaiiy represented simply by arrows in topology diagrams that show both the direction of each (3 strand and the way the strands are connected to each other along the polypeptide chain. Such topology diagrams are here compared with more elaborate schematic diagrams for different types of (3 sheets, (a) Four strands. Antiparallel (3 sheet in one domain of the enzyme aspartate transcarbamoylase. The structure of this enzyme has been determined to 2.8 A resolution in the laboratory of William Lipscomb, Harvard University, (b) Five strands. Parallel (3 sheet in the redox protein flavodoxin, the structure of which has been determined to 1.8 A resolution in the laboratory of Martha Ludwig, University of Michigan, (c) Eight strands. Antiparallel barrel in the electron carrier plastocyanln. This Is a closed barrel where the sheet is folded such that (3 strands 2 and 8 are adjacent. The structure has been determined to 1.6 A resolution in the laboratory of Hans Freeman in Sydney, Australia. (Adapted from J. Richardson.)...

Figure 2.14 shows examples of both cases, an isolated ribbon and a p sheet. The isolated ribbon is illustrated by the structure of bovine trypsin inhibitor (Figure 2.14a), a small, very stable polypeptide of 58 amino acids that inhibits the activity of the digestive protease trypsin. The structure has been determined to 1.0 A resolution in the laboratory of Robert Huber in Munich, Germany, and the folding pathway of this protein is discussed in Chapter 6. Hairpin motifs as parts of a p sheet are exemplified by the structure of a snake venom, erabutoxin (Figure 2.14b), which binds to and inhibits... 

Secondary structure occurs mainly as a helices and p strands. The formation of secondary structure in a local region of the polypeptide chain is to some extent determined by the primary structure. Certain amino acid sequences favor either a helices or p strands others favor formation of loop regions. Secondary structure elements usually arrange themselves in simple motifs, as described earlier. Motifs are formed by packing side chains from adjacent a helices or p strands close to each other. 

Figure 3.13 The hemoglobin molecule is built up of four polypeptide chains two a chains and two (3 chains. Compare this with Figure 1.1 and note that for purposes of clarity parts of the a chains are not shown here. Each chain has a three-dimensional structure similar to that of myoglobin the globin fold. In sicklecell hemoglobin Glu 6 in the (3 chain is mutated to Val, thereby creating a hydrophobic patch on the surface of the molecule. The structure of hemoglobin was determined in 1968 to 2.8 A resolution in the laboratory of Max Perutz at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.

Carboxypeptidases are zinc-containing enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of polypeptides at the C-terminal peptide bond. The bovine enzyme form A is a monomeric protein comprising 307 amino acid residues. The structure was determined in the laboratory of William Lipscomb, Harvard University, in 1970 and later refined to 1.5 A resolution. Biochemical and x-ray studies have shown that the zinc atom is essential for catalysis by binding to the carbonyl oxygen of the substrate. This binding weakens the C =0 bond by... 

There are at least three different classes of crystallins. The a and (3 are heterogeneous assemblies of different subunits specified by different genes, whereas the gamma (y) crystallins are monomeric proteins with a polypeptide chain of around 170 amino acid residues. The structure of one such Y crystallin was determined in the laboratory of Tom Blundell in London to 1.9 A resolution. A picture of this molecule generated from a graphics display is shown in Figure 5.11. 

Many biochemical and biophysical studies of CAP-DNA complexes in solution have demonstrated that CAP induces a sharp bend in DNA upon binding. This was confirmed when the group of Thomas Steitz at Yale University determined the crystal structure of cyclic AMP-DNA complex to 3 A resolution. The CAP molecule comprises two identical polypeptide chains of 209 amino acid residues (Figure 8.24). Each chain is folded into two domains that have separate functions (Figure 8.24b). The larger N-terminal domain binds the allosteric effector molecule, cyclic AMP, and provides all the subunit interactions that form the dimer. The C-terminal domain contains the helix-tum-helix motif that binds DNA. 

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