Probing the effect of side chains on the conformation and stability of helical peptides via isotope-edited infrared spectroscopy.

The mechanism of helix stabilization or destabilization by different amino acids has been the subject of several experimental and theoretical studies; these studies suggest that large or bulky side chains may modulate helix stability by altering the hydration of the helix backbone. In this paper, we report a spectroscopic study to determine the effect of alanine to leucine substitutions on the conformation and solvation of specific segments of a model helical peptide. A 25-residue, alanine-rich, helical peptide [Ac-(AAAAK)(4)-AAAAY-NH(2) (AKA)] and its two leucine variants [Ac-LLLLK-(AAAAK)(3)-AAAAY-NH(2) (LKA) and Ac-(AAAAK)(4)-LLLLY-NH(2) (AKL)] were characterized by infrared (IR) and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopies.