On the stability of polyproline-I and II structures of proline oligopeptides

Proline oligopeptides composed of 13, 6 and 4 Pro residues were synthesized by solid-phase procedure. The circular dichroism spectra showed that the proline oligopeptides form the polyproline-II helix in water and in trifluoroethnol. However, it was shown that the oligopeptide composed of 13 Pro residues remarkably presents conformational transition from the polyproline-II to the polyproline-I helix in methanol and 1-propanol. This result is the first spectrum evidence that proline oligopeptides can form the polyproline-I helix in pure aliphatic alcohol such as methanol and 1-propanol. It was also shown that the propensity forming polyproline-I helix is more favorable in 1-propanol than in methanol, and also that the longer the chain-length is, the greater the stability of the polyproline-I helix is. Such a chain-length dependency of the conformational stability is also supported by the theoretical calculation using molecular mechanics.