title: Structural study of irregular amino acid sequences in the heavy chain of Bombyx mori silk fibroin.
abstract: Recently, genetic studies have revealed the entire amino acid sequence of Bombyx mori silk fibroin. It is known from X-ray diffraction studies that the beta-sheet crystalline structure (silk II) of fibroin is composed of hexaamino acid sequences of GAGAGS. However, in the heavy chain of B. mori silk fibroin, there are also present 11 irregular sequences, with about 31 amino acid residues (irregular GT approximately GT sequences). The structure and role of these irregular sequences have remained unknown. One of the most frequently appearing irregular sequences was synthesized and its 3-D solution structure was studied by high-resolution 2-D NMR techniques. The 3-D structure determined for this peptide shows that it makes a loop structure (distorted omega shape), which implies that the preceding backbone direction is changed by 180 degrees, i.e., reversed, by this sequence. This may facilitate the beta-sheet formation between the crystal-forming building blocks, GAGAGS/GY approximately GY sequences, in the fibroin heavy chain.
authors.affiliation: Fiber and Polymer Science Program, College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8301, USA.
authors.forename: Sung-Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Hanna S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Gracz
authors.forename: Alan E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Tonelli
authors.forename: Samuel M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hudson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry*; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D047011:Silk / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D019476:Insect Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D011108:Polymers; D047011:Silk; D005349:Fibroins