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Title: Structures and related properties of helical, disulfide-stabilized peptides

Thesis/Dissertation ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10115409· OSTI ID:10115409
 [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry

The three dimensional structure of several peptides were determined by NMR spectroscopy and distance geometry calculations. Each peptide formed a predictable, rigid structure, consisting of an α-helix, a "scaffold" region which packed along one face of the helix, and two disulfide bridges which covalently connect the helix and scaffold regions. The peptide Apa-M5 was designed to constrain the M5 peptide from MLCK in a helical geometry using the apamin disulfide scaffold. This scaffold constrains the N- terminal end of the helix with two disulfide bridges and a reverse turn. Like the M5 peptide, Apa-M5 was found to bind calmodulin in a Ca2+-dependent 1:1 stoichiometry. However, the dissociation constant of the (Apa-M5)-calmodulin complex, 107 nM, was 100-fold higher than the dissociation constant of the M5-calmodulin complex. This difference was due to a putative steric overlap between the Apa-M5 scaffold and calmodulin. The peptide Apa-Cro was designed to replace the large structural protein matrix of λ Cro with the apamin disulfide scaffold. However, Apa-Cro did not bind the consensus DNA operator half-site of λ Cro, probably due to a steric overlap between the Apa-Cro disulfide framework and the DNA. The amino acid sequence of the scaffold-disulfide bridge arrangement of the peptide Max was derived from the core sequence of scyllatoxin, which contains an α-helix constrained at the C-terminal end by two disulfide bridges and a two-stranded βsheet scaffold. Max was shown to fold with >84% yield to form a predictable, stable structure that is similar to scyllatoxin. The folding and stability properties of Max make this scaffold and disulfide bridge arrangement an ideal candidate for the development of hybrid sequence peptides. The dynamics of a fraying C-terminal end of the helix of the peptide Apa-AlaN was determined by analysis of 15N NMR relaxation properties.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
10115409
Report Number(s):
LBL-34903; ON: DE94005210; TRN: 94:001214
Resource Relation:
Other Information: TH: Thesis (Ph.D.); PBD: Nov 1993
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English