Introduction to Enzyme and Coenzyme Chemistry - E-Library Home

All Enzymes are Proteins 27
aa 8 aa 1
aa 4 aa 12
aa 11
aa 5
aa 7
α-helix
aa 9
aa 2
aa 3
aa 10
aa 6
Draw helical wheels for the following synthetic peptides, which were
designed to form a-helices with speciWc functions. Suggest what that function
might be.
(a) Gly–Glu–Leu–Glu–Glu–Leu–Leu–Lys–Lys–Leu–Lys–Glu–Leu–Leu–
Lys–Gly
(b) Leu–Ala–Lys–Leu–Leu– Lys–Ala–Leu–Ala–Lys–Leu– Leu–Lys–Lys
Inspired by the above examples, suggest a synthetic peptide which would
fold into an a-helix containing aspartate, histidine and serine side chains in a
line along one face of the helix.
Further reading
Protein structure
C. Branden & J. Tooze (1991) Introduction to Protein Structure. Garland, New York.
C. Chothia (1984) Principles that determine the structure of proteins. Annu. Rev.
Biochem., 53, 537–72.
T.E. Creighton (1993) Proteins – Structures and Molecular Properties, 2nd edn. Freeman,
New York.
G.E. Schulz & R.H. Schirmer (1979) Principles of Protein Structure. Springer-Verlag,
New York.
Protein folding
R. Jaenicke (1991) Protein folding: local structures, domains, subunits and assemblies.
Biochemistry, 30, 3147–61.
C.R. Matthews (1993) Pathways of protein folding. Annu. Rev. Biochem., 62, 653–83.
M.G. Rossmann & P. Argos (1981) Protein folding. Annu. Rev. Biochem., 50, 497–532.
Protein evolution
M. Bajaj & T. Blundell (1984) Evolution and the tertiary structure of proteins. Annu.
Rev. Biophys. Bioeng., 13, 453–92.
R. F. Doolittle (1979) Protein evolution. In: The Proteins (eds H. Neurath & R.L. Hill),
Vol. 4, pp. 1–118. Academic Press, New York.