Defect peptide chemistry: Perturbations in the structure of a homopentapeptide induced by a guest residue interrupting side-chain regularity

The fully blocked pentapeptide Tfa-(Deg)₂-L -Abu-(Deg)₂-OtBu (Tfa:triflouroacetyl; Deg: C^α,α-diethylglycine; OtBu: tert-butoxy) adopts in the crystal state a regular, right-handed 3₁₀-helical structure stabilized by three N ? H …? O ? C intramolecular 1 ← 4 (or C₁₀) H bonds, as determined by an x-ray diffraction analysis. However, a Fourier transform ir absorption and ¹H-nmr study strongly supports the view that in deuterochloroform solution the four Deg residues at both termini of the peptide main chain are involved in successive, fully extended C₅ forms. A comparison with the stable, fully developed, multiple C₅ conformation of Tfa-(Deg)₅-OtBu indicates that incorporation of an Abu guest residue, interrupting the side-chain uniformity of the host (Deg)₅ homopeptide, while altering only marginally the conformation in a solvent of low polarity, is responsible for a dramatic perturbation of the crystal-state structure. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.