The promiscuity of beta-strand pairing allows for rational design of beta-sheet face inversion
Makabe, K., Koide, S.(2008) J Am Chem Soc 130: 14370-14371
- PubMed: 18842042 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/ja805011h
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
3CKF, 3CKG - PubMed Abstract: 
Recent studies suggest the dominant role of main-chain H-bond formation in specifying beta-sheet topology. Its essentially sequence-independent nature implies a large degree of freedom in designing beta-sheet-based nanomaterials. Here we show rational design of beta-sheet face inversions by incremental deletions of beta-strands from the single-layer beta-sheet of Borrelia outer surface protein A. We show that a beta-sheet structure can be maintained when a large number of native contacts are removed and that one can design large-scale conformational transitions of a beta-sheet such as face inversion by exploiting the promiscuity of strand-strand interactions. High-resolution X-ray crystal structures confirmed the success of the design and supported the importance of main-chain H-bonds in determining beta-sheet topology. This work suggests a simple but effective strategy for designing and controlling nanomaterials based on beta-rich peptide self-assemblies.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.