Bottom-up design of peptide shapes in water using oligomers of <i>N</i>-methyl-l/d-alanine.

ABSTRACT: De novo design of peptide shapes is of great interest in biomolecular science since the local peptide shapes formed by a short peptide chain in the proteins are often key to biological activities. Here, we show that the de novo design of peptide shapes with sub-nanometer conformational control can be realized using peptides consisting of N-methyl-l-alanine and N-methyl-d-alanine residues. The conformation of N-methyl-l/d-alanine residue is largely fixed because of the restricted bond rotation and hence can serve as a scaffold on which we can build a peptide into a designed shape. The local shape control by per-residue conformational restriction by torsional strains starkly contrasts with the global shape stabilization of proteins based on many remote inte

SUBMITTER: Morimoto J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12070305 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature