Following the seminal theoretical work on the pleated β-sheet published by Pauling and Corey in 1951, the rippled β-sheet was hypothesized by the same authors in 1953. In the pleated β-sheet the interacting β-strands have the same chirality, whereas in the rippled β-sheet the interacting β-strands are mirror-images. Unlike with the pleated β-sheet that is now common textbook knowledge, the rippled β-sheet has been much slower to evolve. Much of the experimental work on rippled sheets came from groups that study aggregating racemic peptide systems over the course of the past decade. This includes MAX1/DMAX hydrogels (Schneider), L/D-KFE8 aggregating systems (Nilsson), and racemic Amyloid β mixtures (Raskatov). Whether a racemic peptide mixture is “ripple-genic” ( i.e. , whether it forms a rippled sheet) or “pleat-genic” ( i.e. , whether it forms a pleated sheet) is likely governed by a complex interplay of thermodynamic and kinetic effects. Structural insights into rippled sheets remain limited to only a very few studies that combined sparse experimental structural constraints with molecular modeling. Crystal structures of rippled sheets are needed so we can rationally design rippled sheet architectures. Here we report a high-resolution crystal structure, in which ( l , l , l )-triphenylalanine and ( d , d , d )-triphenylalanine form dimeric antiparallel rippled sheets, which pack into herringbone layer structures. The arrangements of the tripeptides and their mirror-images in the individual dimers were in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions by Pauling and Corey. A subsequent mining of the PDB identified three orphaned rippled sheets among racemic protein crystal structures.
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Comparisons of β‐Hairpin Propensity Among Peptides with Homochiral or Heterochiral Strands
Assemblies of racemic β‐sheet‐forming peptides have attracted attention for biomedical applications because racemic forms of peptides can self‐associate more avidly than do single enantiomers. In 1953, Pauling and Corey proposed “rippled β‐sheet” modes of H‐bond‐mediated interstrand assembly for alternating L‐ and D‐peptide strands; this structural hypothesis was complementary to their proposal of “pleated β‐sheet” assembly for L‐peptides. Although no high‐resolution structure has been reported for a rippled β‐sheet, there is strong evidence for the occurrence of rippled β‐sheets in some racemic peptide assemblies. Here we compare propensities of peptide diastereomers in aqueous solution to form a minimum increment of β‐sheet in which two antiparallel strands associate. β‐Hairpin folding is observed for homochiral peptides with aligned nonpolar side chains, but no β‐hairpin population can be detected for diastereomers in which one strand contains L residues and the other contains D residues. These observations suggest that rippled β‐sheet assemblies are stabilized by interactions between β‐sheet layers rather than interactions within these layers.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10282093
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ChemBioChem
- Volume:
- 22
- Issue:
- 18
- ISSN:
- 1439-4227
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 2772-2776
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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The rippled β-sheet is a peptidic structural motif related to but distinct from the pleated β-sheet. Both motifs were predicted in the 1950s by Pauling and Corey. The pleated β-sheet was since observed in countless proteins and peptides and is considered common textbook knowledge. Conversely, the rippled β-sheet only gained a meaningful experimental foundation in the past decade, and the first crystal structural study of rippled β-sheets was published as recently as this year. Noteworthy, the crystallized assembly stopped at the rippled β-dimer stage. It did not form the extended, periodic rippled β-sheet layer topography hypothesized by Pauling and Corey, thus calling the validity of their prediction into question. NMR work conducted since moreover shows that certain model peptides rather form pleated and not rippled β-sheets in solution. To determine whether the periodic rippled β-sheet layer configuration is viable, the field urgently needs crystal structures. Here we report on crystal structures of two racemic and one quasi-racemic aggregating peptide systems, all of which yield periodic rippled antiparallel β-sheet layers that are in excellent agreement with the predictions by Pauling and Corey. Our study establishes the rippled β-sheet layer configuration as a motif with general features and opens the road to structure-based design of unique supramolecular architectures.more » « less
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d -Proline ( D Pro, D P) is widely utilized to form β-hairpin loops in engineered peptides that would otherwise be unstructured, most often as part of a D PG sub-unit that forms a β-turn. To observe whether D PG facilitated this effect in short protonated peptides, conformation specific IR–UV double resonance photofragment spectra of the cold (∼10 K) protonated D P and L P diastereomers of the pentapeptide YAPGA was carried out in the hydride stretch (2800–3700 cm −1 ) and amide I/II (1400–1800 cm −1 ) regions. A model localized Hamiltonian was developed to better describe the 1600–1800 cm −1 region commonly associated with the amide I vibrations. The CO stretch fundamentals experience extensive mixing with the N–H bending fundamentals of the NH 3 + group in these protonated peptides. The model Hamiltonian accounts for experiment in quantitative detail. In the D P diastereomer, all the population is funneled into a single conformer which presented as a type II β-turn with A and D P in the i + 1 and i + 2 positions, respectively. This structure was not the anticipated type II′ β-turn across D PG that we had hypothesized based on solution-phase propensities. Analysis of the conformational energy landscape shows that both steric and charge-induced effects play a role in the preferred formation of the type II β-turn. In contrast, the L P isomer forms three conformations with very different structures, none of which were type II/II′ β-turns, confirming that L PG is not a β-turn former. Finally, single-conformation spectroscopy was also carried out on the extended peptide [YAA D PGAAA + H] + to determine whether moving the protonated N-terminus further from D PG would lead to β-hairpin formation. Despite funneling its entire population into a single peptide backbone structure, the assigned structure is not a β-hairpin, but a concatenated type II/type II′ double β-turn that displaces the peptide backbone laterally by about 7.5 Å, but leaves the backbone oriented in its original direction.more » « less
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Abstract Suckerin in squid sucker ring teeth is a block‐copolymer peptide comprised of two repeating modules—the alanine and histidine‐rich M1 and the glycine‐rich M2. Suckerin self‐assemblies display excellent thermo‐plasticity and pH‐responsive properties, along with the high biocompatibility, biodegradability, and sustainability. However, the self‐assembly mechanism and the detailed role of each module are still elusive, limiting the capability of applying and manipulating such biomaterials. Here, the self‐assembly dynamics of the two modules and two minimalist suckerin‐mimetic block‐copolymers, M1‐M2‐M1 and M2‐M1‐M2, in silico is investigated. The simulation results demonstrate that M2 has a stronger self‐association but weaker β‐sheet propensities than M1. The high self‐assembly propensity of M2 allows the minimalist block‐copolymer peptides to coalesce with microphase separation, enabling the formation of nanoconfined β‐sheets in the matrix formed by M1–M2 contacts. Since these glycine‐rich fragments with scatted hydrophobic and aromatic residues are building blocks of many other block‐copolymer peptides, the study suggests that these modules function as the “molecular glue” in addition to the flexible linker or spacer to drive the self‐assembly and microphase separation. The uncovered molecular insights may help understand the structure and function of suckerin and also aid in the design of functional block‐copolymer peptides for nanotechnology and biomedicine applications.
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null (Ed.)Self-assembling peptides have garnered an increasing amount of interest as a functional biomaterial for medical and biotechnological applications. Recently, β-sheet peptide designs utilizing complementary pairs of peptides composed of charged amino acids positioned to impart co-assembly behavior have expanded the portfolio of peptide aggregate structures. Structural characterization of these charge-complementary peptide co-assemblies has been limited. Thus, it is not known how the complementary peptides organize on the molecular level. Through a combination of solid-state NMR measurements and discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the molecular organization of King–Webb peptide nanofibers. KW+ and KW− peptides co-assemble into near stoichiometric two-component β-sheet structures as observed by computational simulations and 13 C– 13 C dipolar couplings. A majority of β-strands are aligned with antiparallel nearest neighbors within the β-sheet as previously suggested by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements. Surprisingly, however, a significant proportion of β-strand neighbors are parallel. While charge-complementary peptides were previously assumed to organize in an ideal (AB) n pattern, dipolar recoupling measurements on isotopically diluted nanofiber samples reveal a non-negligible amount of self-associated (AA and BB) pairs. Furthermore, computational simulations predict these different structures can coexist within the same nanofiber. Our results highlight structural disorder at the molecular level in a charge-complementary peptide system with implications on co-assembling peptide designs.more » « less
