Tug-of-War in a Dynamic Helical Peptide: Solvent-Induced Helix-Helix Transition of a Lactam-Bridged Peptide Composed of Point- and Axial Chiralities Remote from Each Other.

The dynamic axial chirality of oligopeptide-bound 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) residues can be remote-controlled and diastereoselectively locked. A right-handed (P)-3 -helix is first induced in the dynamic helical oligopeptide by an l-valine (l-Val) far from the bpy moiety and the induced axial bpy chirality is diastereoselectively dioxidized. The resulting l-Val-containing linear oligopeptides at the 3,3'-positions retain their (P)-3 -helices independent of the axial chirality (aR or aS) of the N-terminal N,N'-dioxide-bpy unit, while a lactam-bridged dynamic helical oligopeptide exhibits a unique solvent-induced helix-helix transition as a result of competitive helix-inducing biases between the l-Val and (aR) or (aS)-N,N'-dioxide-bpy residues remote from each other along the entire oligopeptide chain in a tug-of-war like manner.