title: Conformational preferences of a synthetic 30mer peptide from the interface between the neck and stalk regions of kinesin.
abstract: The conformation of a synthetic peptide, consisting of 30 amino acids spanning the neck and hinge regions of rat brain kinesin, was investigated by NMR spectroscopy. The peptide extends from K357 to D386 and has the sequence KSVIQHLEVELNRWRNGEAVPEDEQISAKD. A total of 82 distance range constraints and 23 dihedral angle constraints could be obtained from NOESY and E.COSY spectra, respectively. These were used to calculate 500 structures by applying the REDAC algorithm of the software package DYANA. The first half of the peptide matched the helical structure of the neck determined from an X-ray crystal structure of kinesin. This part normally dimerizes into a coiled-coil by virtue of a leucine zipper interaction, but it is alpha-helical even in the monomeric state. The second half (not visible in the X-ray structure because of disorder) contains locally defined structure elements (extended chain, helical loop) connected by flexible joints. This is consistent with the "hinge" function postulated for this domain which is important for kinesin's motility and orientation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Institute for Organic Chemistry, Martin Luther King Platz 6, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Seeberger
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mandelkow
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Meyer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016547:Kinesins / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D008958:Models, Molecular; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular / Q000379:methods; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D051381:Rats; D012995:Solubility; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D016547:Kinesins