화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.120, No.50, 13042-13045, 1998
A synthetic retrotransition (backward reading) sequence of the right-handed three-helix bundle domain (10-53) of protein A shows similarity in conformation as predicted by computation
A recent computational analysis of retro-proteins (backward reading of native proteins) suggests that the retro-protein has a tendency to adopt a structure similar to that of the natural one, as demonstrated by a case study using a truncated version of the B-domain sequence (10-53) of protein A which forms a right-handed, three-helix bundle (Olszewski, K. A.; Kolinski, A.; Skolnick, J. Protein Eng. 1996, 9, 5-14). To test this hypothesis, both the natural 44 amino acid peptide and its retro-sequence have been synthesized by solid phase and purified to homogeneity. Circular dichroism studies indicate that both peptides adopt right-handed ct-helical structures in the presence of trifluoroethanol. Though it is not clear if this tendency is general, this work does provide useful information for the study of protein folding.