Secondary Structure Tuning of a Pseudoprotein Between β-Meander and α-Helical Forms in the Solid-State

Vignesh Athiyarath, Mithun C. Madhusudhanan, Sooraj Kunnikuruvan, Kana M. Sureshan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Tuning the secondary structure of a protein or polymer in the solid-state is challenging. Here we report the topochemical synthesis of a pseudoprotein and its secondary structure tuning in the solid-state. We designed the dipeptide monomer N3-Leu-Ala-NH-CH2-C≡CH (1) for topochemical azide-alkyne cycloaddition (TAAC) polymerization. Dipeptide 1 adopts an anti-parallel β-sheet-like stacked arrangement in its crystals. Upon heating, the dipeptide undergoes quantitative TAAC polymerization in a crystal-to-crystal fashion yielding large polymers. The reaction occurs between the adjacent monomers in the H-bonded anti-parallel stack, yielding pseudoprotein having a β-meander structure. When dissolved in methanol, this pseudoprotein changes its secondary structure from β-meander to α-helical form and it retains the new secondary structure upon desolvation. This work demonstrates a novel paradigm for tuning the secondary structure of a polymer in the solid-state.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere202113129
JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume61
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Funding

K.M.S. thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India for a SwarnaJayanti Fellowship. S.K. thank DST, Govt. of India for the INSPIRE faculty fellowship. We thank Dr. Vinesh Vijayan for his valuable suggestions regarding NOESY NMR experiments. We thank IISER Thiruvananthapuram for the high performance computing (HPC) facilities. K.M.S. thank the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India for a SwarnaJayanti Fellowship. S.K. thank DST, Govt. of India for the INSPIRE faculty fellowship. We thank Dr. Vinesh Vijayan for his valuable suggestions regarding NOESY NMR experiments. We thank IISER Thiruvananthapuram for the high performance computing (HPC) facilities.

FundersFunder number
Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune

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