Effect of the side group on the helix-forming tendency of α-alkyl-β-L-aspartamyl residues
✍ Scribed by Carlos Alemán; Juan J. Navas; Sebastián Muñoz-Guerra
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 149 KB
- Volume
- 41
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0006-3525
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✦ Synopsis
The conformational preferences of the monomeric units of a series of poly(a-alkylb-L-aspartate)s were examined by quantum mechanical calculations. a-Alkyl-b-aspartamyl moligopeptides with a number of residues m ranging from 1 to 7 and arranged in the conformations experimentally observed for their corresponding polymers were computed. Both their total relative energies and their cooperative energy differences were compared as a function of the length of the oligopeptide and the nature of the alkyl side group. Results revealed that the 13/4 helical arrangement is the most stable structure for the isolated polymer chain for any side group, although a 17/4 helix becomes favored in the case of methyl and ethyl groups due to the packing effects. On the other hand, the stability of the 4/1 helix appears to be the preferred conformation for side groups with a branched constitution.