Structural versatility of peptides from Cα,α-dialkylated glycines. I. A conformational energy computation and x-ray diffraction study of homo-peptides from Cα,α-diethylglycine |
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Authors: | E Benedetti V Barone A Bavoso B Di Blasio F Lelj V Pavone C Pedone G M Bonora C Toniolo M T Leplawy K Kaczmarek A Redlinski |
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Abstract: | Conformational energy computations on a derivative and a homo-dipeptide of Cα,α-diethylglycine were performed. In both cases the N- and C-terminal groups are blocked as acetamido and methylamido moieties, respectively. It was found that the Cα,α-diethylglycine residues are conformationally restricted and that the minimum energy conformation corresponds to the fully extended C5 structure when the N? Cα? C′ bond angle is smaller than 108° (as experimentally observed). The results of the theoretical analysis are in agreement with the crystal-state structural propensity of the complete series of N-trifluoroacetylated homo-peptides of this Cα,α-dialkylated residue from monomer to pentamer, determined by x-ray diffraction and also described in this work. Interestingly, for the first time, a crystallographically planar peptide backbone was observed (in the protected tripeptide). A comparison with peptides of Cα,α-dimethylglycine, Cα-methyl, Cα-ethylglycine, and Cα,α-di-n-propylglycine indicates that the fully extended conformation becomes more stable than the helical structures when both amino acid side-chain Cβ atoms are substituted. |
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