Evaluating beta-turn mimics as beta-sheet folding nucleators.
Fuller, A.A., Du, D., Liu, F., Davoren, J.E., Bhabha, G., Kroon, G., Case, D.A., Dyson, H.J., Powers, E.T., Wipf, P., Gruebele, M., Kelly, J.W.(2009) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106: 11067-11072
- PubMed: 19541614 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0813012106
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
2KBU - PubMed Abstract: 
Beta-turns are common conformations that enable proteins to adopt globular structures, and their formation is often rate limiting for folding. Beta-turn mimics, molecules that replace the i + 1 and i + 2 amino acid residues of a beta-turn, are envisioned to act as folding nucleators by preorganizing the pendant polypeptide chains, thereby lowering the activation barrier for beta-sheet formation. However, the crucial kinetic experiments to demonstrate that beta-turn mimics can act as strong nucleators in the context of a cooperatively folding protein have not been reported. We have incorporated 6 beta-turn mimics simulating varied beta-turn types in place of 2 residues in an engineered beta-turn 1 or beta-bulge turn 1 of the Pin 1 WW domain, a three-stranded beta-sheet protein. We present 2 lines of kinetic evidence that the inclusion of beta-turn mimics alters beta-sheet folding rates, enabling us to classify beta-turn mimics into 3 categories: those that are weak nucleators but permit Pin WW folding, native-like nucleators, and strong nucleators. Strong nucleators accelerate folding relative to WW domains incorporating all alpha-amino acid sequences. A solution NMR structure reveals that the native Pin WW beta-sheet structure is retained upon incorporating a strong E-olefin nucleator. These beta-turn mimics can now be used to interrogate protein folding transition state structures and the 2 kinetic analyses presented can be used to assess the nucleation capacity of other beta-turn mimics.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.