valinomycin and 1-4-dioxane

Raman optical activity (ROA) spectroscopy is used to investigate the backbone conformation of valinomycin in methanol and dioxane solution. Experimental Raman and ROA spectral differences are interpreted by using density functional calculations, molecular dynamics, and Cartesian tensor transfer. Of the several conformers with different numbers of intramolecular hydrogen bonds which were preselected by calculations of relative energies, the dominant ones are identified on the basis of ROA. To separate the backbone signal from that of the side chains, conformational search for the isopropyl residues is performed for each backbone conformer. In dioxane, the most populated conformer does not exhibit C(3) symmetry, but adopts a distorted "bracelet" structure, similar to a crystal structure. This complements previous NMR spectroscopic results that could not distinguish the nonsymmetric structures. In methanol, a different, "propeller" conformer is indicated by ROA, which has three loops resembling a standard β-turn peptide motif. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the propeller structure is very flexible in methanol. Spectra simulated for geometries not having the β-turn do not agree with experiment. On the basis of these results, a distinct +/- ROA couplet at ∼1335/1317 cm(-1) observed in the extended amide III region is assigned to a turn in the valinomycin backbone.

Topics: Dioxanes; Methanol; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; Optical Rotation; Spectrum Analysis, Raman; Valinomycin

The crystal structure of a valinomycin analogue, cyclo[-(D-Val-Hyi-Val-D-Hyi)3-]x(C60H102N6O18) crystallized with dioxane and water molecules, has been solved by X-ray direct methods. The conformation found is analogous to one established for free meso-valinomycin crystallized from other organic solvents. It is characterized by a centrosymmetric bracelet form, stabilized by six intramolecular 4----1 type hydrogen bonds between amide N-H and C = O groups. One water molecule is fixed asymmetrically by hydrogen bonds in the internal negatively charged cavity of the complexon. The meso-valinomycin molecule "bracelets" in the crystal form stacks alternatively with dioxane molecules.

Topics: Cations, Monovalent; Dioxanes; Molecular Structure; Potassium; Rubidium; Valinomycin; X-Ray Diffraction

Valinomycin, cyclo-[(L-Val-D-Hyv-D-Val-L-Lac)3-], was crystallized from aqueous dioxane solvent as a monohydrate complex in which water molecules were found within the ion-binding cavity of the ionophore: monoclinic P2(1), a = 14.377 (3), b = 41.554 (14), c = 14.080 (3) A, beta = 118.27 (2) degrees, Z = 4. There are two non-equivalent valinomycin-water complexes and three dioxane molecules in the asymmetric unit. The ionophore molecules adopt two similar but non-identical, octahedral, bracelet, cage conformations that are a consequence of two distinct ways in which the complexed water molecules can deform the normal octahedral coordinate geometry of the metal binding site. In the first complex the water molecule forms hydrogen donor bonds to the carbonyl oxygens of two L-valine residues on one facial side of the cavity, while in the second complex the water molecule is trigonal-planar coordinate and binds to two L-valine residues on one entrant face of the cavity plus a third D-valine residue from the opposite side of the cavity.

Topics: Binding Sites; Crystallization; Dioxanes; Polymorphism, Genetic; Protein Conformation; Valinomycin; Water; X-Ray Diffraction