We report the 0.75 Å crystal structure of
a racemic mixture of the 12-residue designed peptide “Alpha-1”
(Acetyl-ELLKKLLEELKG), the L-enantiomer of which is described
in the accompanying paper. Equivalent solutions of the
centrosymmetric bilayers were determined by two direct
phasing programs in space groups P1 and P1. The unit cell contains
two l-alpha-helices and two d-alpha-helices.
The columnar-sheet bilayer motif seen in l-Alpha-1
is maintained in the d,l-Alpha-1 structure
except that each sheet of head-to-tail helices is composed
of one enantiomer and is related to its neighboring sheets
by inversion symmetry. Comparison to the l-Alpha-1
structure provides further insight into peptide design.
The high resolution and small asymmetric unit allowed building
an intricate model (R = 13.1%, Rfree
= 14.5%) that incorporates much of the discrete disorder
of peptide and solvent. Ethanolamine and 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol
(MPD) molecules bind near helix termini. Rigid body analysis
identifies sites of restricted displacements and torsions.
Side-chain discrete disorder propagates into the backbone
of one helix but not the other. Although no side chain
in Alpha-1 is rigid, the environments in the crystal restrict
some of them to no or only one active torsion.