Biomacromolecules, Vol.21, No.8, 3102-3111, 2020
Lamellar Structure in Alanine-Glycine Copolypeptides Studied by Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy: A Model for the Crystalline Domain of Bombyx mori Silk Fibroin in Silk II Form
Bombyx mori silk fibroin (SF) fibers with excellent mechanical properties have attracted widespread attention as new biomaterials. However, the structural details are still not conclusive. Here, we propose a lamellar structure for the crystalline domain of the SF fiber based on structural analyses of the Ala C beta peaks in the C-13 cross-polarization/magic angle spinning NMR spectra of (Ala-Gly)(m) (m = 9, 12, 15, and 25) and C-13 selectively labeled (Ala-Gly)(15) model peptides. Namely, three Ala C beta peaks with relative intensities of 1:2:1 obtained by deconvolution were assigned to two kinds of beta-sheet and a beta-turn, which are interpreted as a lamellar structure formed by repetitive folding using beta-turns every eighth amino acid, for which the basic structure is (Ala-Gly)(4) in an antipolar arrangement. The dynamics and intermolecular arrangement were further studied using C-13 solid-state spin-lattice relaxation time observations and the rotational echo double resonance experiments, respectively.