Retention of Native Quaternary Structure in Racemic Melittin Crystals

Journal Article · Mon May 06 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b02691· OSTI ID:1526066

Kurgan, Kathleen W. ^[1]; Kleman, Adam F. ^[1]; Bingman, Craig A. ^[1]; Kreitler, Dale F. ^[2]; Weisblum, Bernard ^[1]; Forest, Katrina T. ^[1]; Gellman, Samuel H. ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
2. Univ. at Buffalo, NY (United States)

Racemic crystallography has been used to elucidate the secondary and tertiary structures of peptides and small proteins that are recalcitrant to conventional crystallization. It is unclear, however, whether racemic crystallography can capture native quaternary structure, which could be disrupted by heterochiral associations. We are exploring the use of racemic crystallography to characterize the self-assembly behavior of membrane-associated peptides, very few of which have been crystallized. We report a racemic crystal structure of the membrane-active peptide melittin; the new structure allows comparison with a previously reported crystal structure of L-melittin. The tetrameric assembly observed in crystalline L-melittin has been proposed to represent the tetrameric state detected in solution for this peptide. This tetrameric assembly is precisely reproduced in the racemic crystal, which strengthens the conclusion that the tetramer is biologically relevant. More broadly, these findings suggest that racemic crystallography can provide insight on native quaternary structure.

• Research Organization: Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: NSFNIH
• OSTI ID: 1526066
• Journal Information: Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal Name: Journal of the American Chemical Society Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 141; ISSN 0002-7863
• Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Crystal structure
Crystals
Molecules
Oligomers
Peptides and proteins