The Trpzip2 peptide (WTWENGKWTWK-NH(2)), designed by Cochran and co-workers, contains two pairs of Trp's having cross-strand interaction and forms a stable antiparallel beta-hairpin. In order to study the geometries and effects on the structure and stability of different aromatic interactions, selected tryptophan residues were substituted with Tyr to get three Trpzip2 mutants with different Trp/Trp, Trp/Tyr, and Tyr/Tyr interacting pairs. Their native-state structures were determined using two-dimensional (2D) NMR and shown to have the same cross-strand edge-to-face Trp/Trp interaction as that in Trpzip2 for the Trp/Trp pair. The analogous Trp/Tyr and Tyr/Tyr pairs also tended to have an edge-to-face geometry. The effects of specific Trp/Trp, Trp/Tyr, and Tyr/Tyr interactions on hairpin stability were studied by varying temperature and monitoring structure with electronic circular dichroism (CD) and infrared (IR) absorption spectra. IR and CD temperature variations were fit to a two-state model that yielded lower T(m) values for Tyr containing mutants, indicating that Trp/Tyr and Tyr/Tyr interactions have less contribution to hairpin stability than the Trp/Trp interaction. Trp/Tyr interactions can provide significant stabilization, much greater than the Trp/aliphatic interaction, but Tyr/Tyr interactions are not as significant. Cross-strand interacting residues involving Trp with an edge-to-face orientation with Trp or Tyr had the strongest impact on hairpin stability.

The temperature-induced beta-hairpin stabilities of selected mutations of the Trpzip1 peptide, SWTWEGNKWTWK (WWWW), have been investigated by electronic circular dichroism (CD), Raman, and FT-IR spectroscopies. The tryptophan (Trp) residues in the original Trpzip1 sequence were systematically substituted with tyrosine (Tyr) in different positions to test the impact of Trp interactions on the beta-hairpin structure and stability. The CD intensity at approximately 228 nm, which arises from Trp-Trp interactions (tertiary structure), and the amide I' IR absorbance at approximately 1635 cm(-1) (secondary structure) have been measured over a range of temperatures to investigate the impact of Tyr substitution on beta-hairpin thermal stability in Trpzip peptides. Mutation from Trp to Tyr in the Trpzip1 sequence reduces the extent of beta-hairpin structure and monotonically decreases the beta-hairpin stability of Trpzip1 mutant peptides with an increasing number of Tyr substitutions. Substituted Trpzip peptides with just one pair of Trp-Trp interactions close to either the terminal residues (WYYW) or the turn (YWWY) have similar stabilities. Comparison of conformational transitions monitored by CD and IR reveals them to have multistate behavior in which the temperature-induced disruption of the Trp-Trp interaction (tertiary structure) occurs at a lower temperature than the unfolding of the secondary structure.

The structural change of chicken egg white lysozyme in aqueous 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate ([bmim][NO(3)]) solutions (0-24 M) has been investigated by optical spectroscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) methods. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectra and SAXS profiles indicated that the addition of up to 6 M of [bmim][NO(3)] induces unfolding of lysozyme resulting from disruption of the α-helix by the NO(3)(-) ion. On the other hand, even with the addition of more than 10 M of [bmim][NO(3)], lysozyme aggregation is inhibited and the protein adopts a partially globular state (the secondary structure is partially refolded while the tertiary structure is disrupted). Observation of the structural features of the aqueous [bmim][NO(3)] solution by Raman OD stretching spectra indicated that bulk-like water still remains at concentrations above 10 M and form an "aggregated water" (water pool) in the nanoheterogeneous structure consisting of a polar domain (the high charge-density region) and nonpolar areas (the alkyl-chain region) in the IL. At these concentrations (above 10 M), lysozyme is not sufficiently hydrated because of the reduced number of water molecules. Consequently lysozyme above 10 M assumes the partially globular state. We propose that the changes of the unique IL solution structure (nanoheterogeneous) between the lower and higher [bmim][NO(3)] concentrations strongly correlated to the differences in the protein stability of the present results.