Structures of α-Keratin and Synthetic Polypeptides

Abstract

THE quest for the structure of the α-form of members of the keratin–myosin–epidermis–fibrinogen group of fibrous proteins has recently been encouraged by the discovery among X-ray photographs of synthetic polypeptides of a diffraction diagram that looks as if it might very well be of the α-type1–5. We have already given a preliminary discussion1 of this possibility, and it naturally continues to engage our close attention ; but we are not yet able to share the confidence of our fellow investigators2–5 either in the genuineness of the supposed α-diagram or in the correctness of the intramolecular fold put forward to explain it. Having worked, with my colleagues, so long on the problem of the keratin–myosin–epidermis–fibrinogen group, I may be allowed to recall some of our earlier results and conclusions which have still not lost their force and which simply cannot be overlooked if we are to come finally to the right answer.