Alpha Atoms Research Articles

The structure of cyclin H: common mode of kinase activation and specific features.

The crystal structure of human cyclin H refined at 2.6 A resolution is compared with that of cyclin A. The core of the molecule consists of two repeats containing five helices each and forming the canonical cyclin fold also observed in TFIIB. One hundred and thirty-two out of the 217 C alpha atoms from the cyclin fold can be superposed with a root-mean-square difference of 1.8 A. The structural homology is even higher for the residues at the interface with the kinase, which is of functional significance, as shown by our observation that cyclin H binds to cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) and that cyclin A is able to activate cdk7 in the presence of MAT1. Based on this superposition, a new signature sequence for cyclins was found. The specificity of the cyclin H molecule is provided mainly by two long helices which extend the cyclin fold at its N- and C-termini and pack together against the first repeat on the side opposite to the kinase. Deletion mutants show that the terminal helices are required for a functionally active cyclin H.

A simple two-dimensional representation for the common secondary structural elements of polypeptides and proteins

A simple method is presented for projecting the conformation of extended secondary structure elements of peptides and proteins that extend over four C alpha atoms onto a simple two-dimensional surface. A new set of two degrees of freedom is defined, a pseudodihedral involving four sequential C alpha atoms, as well as the triple scalar product for the vectors describing the orientation of the three intervening peptide groups. The method provides a reduction in dimensionality, from the usual combination of multiple phi,psi pairs to a single pair, yielding valuable information concerning the structure and dynamics of these important elements. The new two-dimensional surface is explored by reference to 63 selected protein crystal structures together with a comparison of model built peptides representing the common secondary structural elements. Dynamical aspects on this new surface are examined using a molecular dynamics trajectory of Basic Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor.

The NMR side-chain assignments and solution structure of enzyme IIBcellobiose of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system of Escherichia coli.

The assignment of the side-chain NMR resonances and the determination of the three-dimensional solution structure of the C10S mutant of enzyme IIBcellobiose (IIBcel) of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system of Escherichia coli are presented. The side-chain resonances were assigned nearly completely using a variety of mostly heteronuclear NMR experiments, including HCCH-TOCSY, HCCH-COSY, and COCCH-TOCSY experiments as well as CBCACOHA, CBCA(CO)NH, and HBHA(CBCA)(CO)NH experiments. In order to obtain the three-dimensional structure, NOE data were collected from 15N-NOESY-HSQC, 13C-HSQC-NOESY, and 2D NOE experiments. The distance restraints derived from these NOE data were used in distance geometry calculations followed by molecular dynamics and simulated annealing protocols. In an iterative procedure, additional NOE assignments were derived from the calculated structures and new structures were calculated. The final set of structures, calculated with approximately 2000 unambiguous and ambiguous distance restraints, has an rms deviation of 1.1 A on C alpha atoms. IIBcel consists of a four stranded parallel beta-sheet, in the order 2134. The sheet is flanked with two and three alpha-helices on either side. Residue 10, a cysteine in the wild-type enzyme, which is phosphorylated during the catalytic cycle, is located at the end of the first beta-strand. A loop that is proposed to be involved in the binding of the phosphoryl-group follows the cysteine. The loop appears to be disordered in the unphosphorylated state.

Analysis of comparative modeling predictions for CASP2 targets 1, 3, 9, and 17

Comparative modeling targets 1, 3, 9 and 17 were predicted by alignment of multiple sequences and structures, when available, followed by minimization using the program AMMP. The minimization used improved potentials, and distance restraints for regions of common structure. New prediction procedures were evaluated. Three tested solvent corrections did not significantly improve the predictions. Target 17 had 85.3% sequence identity with the parent and no insertions or deletions. The prediction had a root-mean-square deviation from target 17 of 0.56 A on C alpha atoms, and 0.59 A for the ligand atoms, which verified the accuracy of the minimization. Targets 1, 3, and 9 had 36.4%, 46.7%, and 33.3% identity with the parent sequences, and predictions resulted in root-mean-square deviations for 79-85% of C alpha atoms of 1.49, 1.11, and 1.24 A, respectively. Conformational differences between parent and target crystal structures were difficult to predict. The use of distance restraints and multiple structures improved the positioning of gaps in sequence alignment. Distance restraints did not overcome errors in sequence alignment or ambiguities due to conformational variation in proteins. Predictions for targets 3 and 9 successfully reduced large deviations between parent and target structures.

Rapid protein fragment search using hash functions based on the Fourier transform.

Since the protein structure database has been growing very rapidly in recent years, the development of efficient methods for searching for similar structures is very important. This paper presents a novel method for searching for similar fragments of proteins. In this method, a hash vector (a vector of real numbers) is associated with each fixed-length fragment of three-dimensional protein structure. Each vector consists of low-frequency components of the Fourier-like spectrum for the distances between C alpha atoms and the centroid. Then, we can analyze the similarity between fragments by evaluating the difference between hash vectors. The novel aspect of the method is that the following property is proved theoretically: if the root mean square distance between two fragments is small, then the distance between the hash vectors is small. Several variants of this method were compared with a naive method and a previous method using PDB data. The results show that the fastest one among the variants is 18-80 times faster than the naive method, and 3-10 times faster than the previous method.

Molecular dynamics simulation of conformational flexibility of alamethicin fragments in aqueous and membranous environment.

We present here results on molecular dynamics (MD) simulation on two fragments of channel forming antibiotic peptide Alamethicin, containing isoamino butyric acid (Aib). Simulations are carried out in aqueous and membranous environment in a bilayer of 39 molecules of Dimyristoyl phosphatidyl choline (DMPC). The peptides Boc-Pro-Aib-Ala-Aib-OBzl (Alam 1) and Boc-Leu-Aib-Pro-OBzl (Alam 2) were simulated from their crystallographic coordinates. The bilayers were built from two different conformations (A and B) of DMPC reported in crystal data. The P-N dipoles were arranged hexagonally with surface area per lipid molecule 66.5 A degrees 2 and P-P separation across the bilayer 34 A degrees. They were hydrated by 28.6 and 25.5 water molecules per DMPC molecule. Simulations are done using AMBER 4.0 package in constant number volume temperature (NVT) condition for 100 pico seconds (ps) in aqueous environment and 250 ps of equilibrated bilayer. Geometric parameters of lipids as: bilayer thickness, order parameter of the chains, transfraction of chain torsional angles were monitored. We also monitored geometric parameters of the peptides as backbone torsional angles, distances amongst C alpha atoms, angles between C alpha atoms, movement of center of gravity (CG) along and perpendicular to bilayer normal. We find that membrane bilayer is slightly disturbed due to the presence of peptides. In case of alam 2 in water angles phi 1 and phi 3 showed larger variation in water compared to same in the bilayer. The peptide conformation is more stable in DMPC bilayer. However the peptides showed movement along and perpendicular to bilayer normal. This we believe is due to hydrophobic nature of these peptides.

Homology modelling by distance geometry

Unknown protein structures can be predicted from known structures (the scaffolds) with sequences sufficiently homologous to that of the target, based on the observation that similar sequences usually adopt the same fold. When structural equivalences between residues in the scaffold and target proteins are expressed in terms of conserved interatomic distances, the resulting 'distance geometry' representation provides an elegant mechanism for simultaneous restraint satisfaction and bias-free conformation space exploration. We present a homology modelling algorithm based on distance geometry that relies on the gradual projection of simple model chain coordinates into Euclidean spaces with decreasing dimensionality. The similarity between the unknown target structure and the scaffold proteins with known structures was described by mapping secondary structure assignments and specific distance restraints between C alpha atoms onto the model through a multiple alignment. This information was complemented by additional restraints derived from stereochemical considerations and other general aspects of protein structure such as hydrophobic core formation or the absence of tangled mainchains. The method was capable of quickly locating the correct fold even from an alignment with modest average conservation indicating that it could serve as a fast tool for obtaining correct low-resolution starting conformations for detailed refinement.

Modeling of the three-dimensional structure of luffin-alpha and its simulated reaction with the substrate oligoribonucleotide GAGA.

A fundamental problem in biochemistry and molecular biology is understanding the spatial structure of macromolecules and then analyzing their functions. In this study, the three-dimensional structure of a ribosome-inactivating protein luffin-alpha was predicted using a neural network method and molecular dynamics simulation. A feedforward neural network with the backpropagation learning algorithm were trained on model class of homologous proteins including trichosanthin and alpha-momorcharin. The distance constraints for the C alpha atoms in the protein backbone were utilized to generate a folded crude conformation of luffin-alpha by model building and the steepest descent minimization approach. The crude conformation was refined by molecular dynamics techniques and a simulated annealing procedure. The interaction between luffin-alpha and its analogous substrate GAGA was also simulated to understand its action mechanism.

Molecular-dynamics simulation of domain movements in aspartate aminotransferase.

Mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase is a homodimeric protein with 2 x 402 amino acid residues. The enzyme in solution undergoes ligand-induced and syncatalytic conformational changes which appear to correspond to shifts in the equilibrium between the crystallographically defined open and closed conformation. In the closed conformation, the small domain of each subunit has rotated as a rigid body by 13 degrees and 14 degrees towards the large coenzyme-binding domain and has closed the active-site pocket. Molecular dynamics simulations at 300 K of 120-ps duration were started from the crystal structures of the unliganded pyridoxal form (open form) of the dimeric enzyme and the 2-methylaspartate-liganded closed form in which the 2-methyl group had been removed. Both structures contained the crystal water molecules and were placed in a 5-A shell of water. The rms fluctuations of the individual C alpha atoms during the simulations agreed well with the corresponding B factors of the crystal structures. Superposition of the initial structures and the average structures of the last 20 ps showed in both simulations extensive C alpha deviations in the case of the whole subunit but much smaller changes in the individual large and small domains, indicating a movement of the two domains relative to each other. In the simulation of the open form, superposition of the large domains made evident a displacement of the small domain towards its position in the closed crystal structure, which can be described by a rotation of the small domain by about 13 degrees around the twofold symmetry (z) axis. A significantly less extensive rearrangement of parts of the small domain, i.e. a rotation of about 5 degrees around the z axis, was observed in the simulation of the substrate-liganded enzyme (closed form) which, in contrast to the open form, showed only small conformational changes around the active site. In both simulations an additional rotation of the small domain by 9 degrees around the x axis occurred. The actual domain movement is estimated to occur in a time range at least two orders of magnitude larger than the simulation time of 120 ps. Apparently, the surface tension of the unrestrained nonspherical shell of water accelerates the simulated conformational change which, however, quite closely imitates the geometric features of the extensive movement of the small domains (each approximately 130 residues).

The structural alignment between two proteins: is there a unique answer?

Structurally similar but sequentially unrelated proteins have been discovered and rediscovered by many researchers, using a variety of structure comparison tools. For several pairs of such proteins, existing structural alignments obtained from the literature, as well as alignments prepared using several different similarity criteria, are compared with each other. It is shown that, in general, they differ from each other, with differences increasing with diminishing sequence similarity. Differences are particularly strong between alignments optimizing global similarity measures, such as RMS deviation between C alpha atoms, and alignments focusing on more local features, such as packing or interaction pattern similarity. Simply speaking, by putting emphasis on different aspects of structure, different structural alignments show the unquestionable similarity in a different way. With differences between various alignments extending to a point where they can differ at all positions, analysis of structural similarities leads to contradictory results reported by groups using different alignment techniques. The problem of uniqueness and stability of structural alignments is further studied with the help of visualization of the suboptimal alignments. It is shown that alignments are often degenerate and whole families of alignments can be generated with almost the same score as the "optimal alignment." However, for some similarity criteria, specially those based on side-chain positions, rather than C alpha positions, alignments in some areas of the protein are unique. This opens the question of how and if the structural alignments can be used as "standards of truth" for protein comparison.

The structural homology between uteroglobin and the pore‐forming domain of colicin A suggests a possible mechanism of action for uteroglobin

Although the exact physiological function of uteroglobin is not known, it has been suggested that it may function by inhibiting phospholipase A2. We have found that the uteroglobin fold is embedded in that of the poreforming domain of colicin A. Colicin A is an antibiotic protein that kills sensitive Escherichia coli cells by forming a pore in their phospholipid membrane. The RMS deviation between the C alpha atoms after the structural alignment is 2.39 A for the 52 superimposed residues. In the alignment, uteroglobin helices 1, 2, 3, and 4 align with colicin A helices 6, 7, 3, and 4, respectively. The motif is strongly amphipathic in both proteins. On the basis of this common structural motif and of known experimental data on both proteins, we propose that UG binds to the membrane surface by lying on it monotopically. The phospholipase A2 inhibition would follow this initial binding step.

Structure of a neutralizing antibody bound bivalently to human rhinovirus 2.

The structure of a complex between human rhinovirus serotype 2 (HRV2) and the weakly neutralizing monoclonal antibody 8F5 has been determined to 25 A resolution by cryo-electron microscopy and 3-D reconstruction techniques. THe antibody is seen to be bound bivalently across the icosahedral 2-fold axis, despite the very short distance of 60 A between the symmetry-related epitopes. The canyon around the 5-fold axis is not obstructed. Due to extreme flexibility of the hinge region the Fc domains occupy random orientations and are not visible in the reconstruction. The atomic coordinates of Fab-8F5 complexes with a synthetic peptide derived from the viral protein 2 (VP2) epitope were fitted to the structure obtained by cryo-electron microscope techniques. The X-ray structure of HRV2 is not unknown, so that of the closely related HRV1A was placed in the electron microscopic density map. The footprint of 8F5 on the viral surface is largely on VP2, but also covers the VP3 loop centred on residue 3060. C alpha atoms of VP1 and 8F5 come no closer than 10 A. Based on the fit of the X-ray coordinates to the electron microscope data, the synthetic 15mer peptide starts and ends in close proximity to the corresponding amino acids of VP2 on HRV1A. However, the respective loops diverge considerably in their overall spatial disposition. It appears from this study that bivalent binding of an antibody directed against a picornavirus exists for a smaller spanning distance than was previously thought possible. Also bivalent binding does not ensure strong neutralization.

Modeling of polypeptide chains as C alpha chains, C alpha chains with C beta, and C alpha chains with ellipsoidal lateral chains

In an effort to reduce the number of degrees of freedom necessary to describe a polypeptide chain we analyze the statistical behavior of polypeptide chains when represented as C alpha chains, C alpha chains with C beta atoms attached, and C alpha chains with rotational ellipsoids as models of side chains. A statistical analysis on a restricted data set of 75 unrelated protein structures is performed. The comparison of the database distributions with those obtained by model calculation on very short polypeptide stretches allows the dissection of local versus nonlocal features of the distributions. The database distribution of the bend angles of polypeptide chains of pseudo bonded C alpha atoms spans a restricted range of values and shows a bimodal structure. On the other hand, the torsion angles of the C alpha chain may assume almost all possible values. The distribution is bimodal, but with a much broader probability distribution than for bend angles. The C alpha - C beta vectors may be taken as representative of the orientation of the lateral chain, as the direction of the bond is close to the direction of the vector joining C alpha to the ad hoc defined center of the "steric mass" of the side chain. Interestingly, both the bend angle defined by C alpha i-C alpha i+1-C beta i+1 and the torsional angle offset of the pseudo-dihedral C alpha i-C alpha i+1-C alpha i+2-C beta i+2 with respect to C alpha i-C alpha i+1-C alpha i+2-C alpha i+3 span a limited range of values. The latter results show that it is possible to give a more realistic representation of polypeptide chains without introducing additional degrees of freedom, i.e., by just adding to the C alpha chain a C beta with given side-chain properties. However, a more realistic description of side chains may be attained by modeling side chains as rotational ellipsoids that have roughly the same orientation and steric hindrance. To this end, we define the steric mass of an atom as proportional to its van der Waals volume and we calculate the side-chain inertia ellipsoid assuming that the steric mass of each atom is uniformly distributed within its van der Waals volume. Finally, we define the rotational ellipsoid representing the side chain as the uniform density ellipsoid possessing the same rotationally averaged inertia tensor of the side chain. The statistics of ellipsoid parameters support the possibility of representing a side chain via an ellipsoid, independently of the local conformation. To make this description useful for molecular modeling we describe ellipsoid-ellipsoid interactions via a Lennard-Jones potential that preserves the repulsive core of the interacting ellipsoids and takes into account their mutual orientation. Tests are performed for two different forms of the interaction potential on a set of high-resolution protein structures. Results are encouraging, in view of the drastic simplifications that were introduced.

Delaunay tessellation of proteins: four body nearest-neighbor propensities of amino acid residues.

Delaunay tessellation is applied for the first time in the analysis of protein structure. By representing amino acid residues in protein chains by C alpha atoms, the protein is described as a set of points in three-dimensional space. Delaunay tessellation of a protein structure generates an aggregate of space-filling irregular tetrahedra, or Delaunay simplices. The vertices of each simplex define objectively four nearest neighbor C alpha atoms, i.e., four nearest-neighbor residues. A simplex classification scheme is introduced in which simplices are divided into five classes based on the relative positions of vertex residues in protein primary sequence. Statistical analysis of the residue composition of Delaunay simplices reveals nonrandom preferences for certain quadruplets of amino acids to be clustered together. This nonrandom preference may be used to develop a four-body potential that can be used in evaluating sequence-structure compatibility for the purpose of inverted structure prediction.

High-resolution structure of the diphtheria toxin repressor complexed with cobalt and manganese reveals an SH3-like third domain and suggests a possible role of phosphate as co-corepressor.

The crystal structure of diphtheria toxin repressor (DtxR) in complex with the corepressor Co2+ has been determined at 2.0 A resolution and in complex with Mn2+ at 2.2 A resolution. The structure of the flexible third domain could be determined at this high resolution. It appears to contain five antiparallel strands exhibiting a fold very similar to the SH3 domain. A superposition of 46 equivalent C alpha atoms of DtxR and alpha-spectrin SH3 resulted in an rms deviation of 3.0 A. The sequence identity is only 7%. This third domain of DtxR appears to have no interactions with the DNA binding domain nor with the metal binding domain of the repressor. Yet, flexibility in the region between the second and the third domain allows in principle significant conformational changes such as might occur upon DNA binding. The two metal binding sites in the second domain have been unraveled in considerable detail. Metal binding site 1 was well occupied in both the cobalt and manganese structures and showed a surprising sulfate ion as ligand. The sulfate was proven beyond doubt by the high peak at its position in a selenate versus sulfate difference Fourier. The presence of the intriguing sulfate ion at such a crucial position near the metal corepressor suggests the possibility that under physiological conditions phosphate may act as a "co-corepressor" for this class of metal-regulated DNA binding proteins in Corynebacteria, Mycobacteria, and related organisms. The second metal binding site is significantly different in these two DtxR structures. In the 2.0 A cobalt structure, the site is not occupied by a metal ion. In the 2.2 A manganese structure the site is well occupied, at approximately the same position as observed previously in cadmium DtxR. The ligands are Glu105, His106, the carbonyl oxygen of Cys102, and a water molecule. The reasons for differential occupancy of this site in different structures are intriguing and require further investigations.

Crystal structure of recombinant triosephosphate isomerase from bacillus stearothermophilus. An analysis of potential thermostability factors in six isomerases with known three‐dimensional structures points to the importance of hydrophobic interactions

The structure of the thermostable triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) from Bacillus stearothermophilus complexed with the competitive inhibitor 2-phosphoglycolate was determined by X-ray crystallography to a resolution of 2.8 A. The structure was solved by molecular replacement using XPLOR. Twofold averaging and solvent flattening was applied to improve the quality of the map. Active sites in both the subunits are occupied by the inhibitor and the flexible loop adopts the "closed" conformation in either subunit. The crystallographic R-factor is 17.6% with good geometry. The two subunits have an RMS deviation of 0.29 A for 248 C alpha atoms and have average temperature factors of 18.9 and 15.9 A2, respectively. In both subunits, the active site Lys 10 adopts an unusual phi, psi combination. A comparison between the six known thermophilic and mesophilic TIM structures was conducted in order to understand the higher stability of B. stearothermophilus TIM. Although the ratio Arg/(Arg+Lys) is higher in B. stearothermophilus TIM, the structure comparisons do not directly correlate this higher ratio to the better stability of the B. stearothermophilus enzyme. A higher number of prolines contributes to the higher stability of B. stearothermophilus TIM. Analysis of the known TIM sequences points out that the replacement of a structurally crucial asparagine by a histidine at the interface of monomers, thus avoiding the risk of deamidation and thereby introducing a negative charge at the interface, may be one of the factors for adaptability at higher temperatures in the TIM family. Analysis of buried cavities and the areas lining these cavities also contributes to the greater thermal stability of the B. stearothermophilus enzyme. However, the most outstanding result of the structure comparisons appears to point to the hydrophobic stabilization of dimer formation by burying the largest amount of hydrophobic surface area in B. stearothermophilus TIM compared to all five other known TIM structures.

Cα‐based torsion angles: A simple tool to analyze protein conformational changes

A simple method is presented for the analysis of protein conformational changes based on the comparison of torsion angles defined by four consecutive C alpha atoms. The technique was applied successfully to proteins that undergo hinge motion and shear motion. In the case of both MBP and LAO, which represent examples of hinge motion, the plot of the differences in C alpha-torsion angles between the open and closed forms of the proteins helped us to formulate a more thorough description of the conformational change: a large displacement of one domain with respect to the other where one of the domains does not behave like a rigid body but exhibits some degree of flexibility. The analysis of citrate synthase, which is an example of shear motion, shows that the largest differences in C alpha-torsion angles between the open and closed conformations are clustered around residues that belong to segments connecting alpha-helices, whereas the helices themselves appear to be rigid; this is in agreement with previous results obtained by detailed least-squares superpositions (Lesk AM, Chothia C, 1984, J Mol Biol 174:175-191).

1H, 13C and 15N assignments and chemical shift-derived secondary structure of intestinal fatty acid-binding protein

Sequence-specific 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments have been established for rat intestinal fatty acid-binding protein complexed with palmitate (15.4 kDa) at pH 7.2 and 37 degrees C. The resonance assignment strategy involved the concerted use of seven 3D triple-resonance experiments (CC-TOCSY, HCCH-TOCSY, HNCO, HNCA, 15N-TOCSY-HMQC, HCACO and HCA(CO)N). A central feature of this strategy was the concurrent assignment of both backbone and side-chain aliphatic atoms, which was critical for overcoming ambiguities in the assignment process. The CC-TOCSY experiment provided the unambiguous links between the side-chain spin systems observed in HCCH-TOCSY and the backbone correlations observed in the other experiments. Assignments were established for 124 of the 131 residues, although 6 of the 124 had missing amide 1H resonances, presumably due to rapid exchange with solvent under these experimental conditions. The assignment database was used to determine the solution secondary structure of the complex, based on chemical shift indices for the 1H alpha, 13C alpha, 13C beta and 13CO atoms. Overall, the secondary structure agreed well with that determined by X-ray crystallography [Sacchettini et al. (1989) J. Mol. Biol., 208, 327-339], although minor differences were observed at the edges of secondary structure elements.

X-ray structure of wheat germ agglutinin isolectin 3.

Wheat germ agglutinin isolectin 3 (WGA3) was crystallized from 10 mM acetate buffer at pH 4.9 containing 6 mM CaCl(2) and 4%(v/v) ethanol. The crystal belongs to monoclinic space group P2(1) with unit-cell dimensions a = 44.86, b = 91.02, c = 44.86 A, and beta = 110.22 degrees. The asymmetric unit contains two molecules (V(m) = 2.51 A(3) Da(-1)). The crystal structure was solved by the molecular-replacement method and was refined by the simulated-annealing method. The conventional R value was 0.191 for 19713 reflections [|F(o)| > 3sigma(F)] in the resolution range 8-1.9 A. The r.m.s. deviations from the ideal bond distances and angles were 0.014 A, and 3.0 degrees, respectively, and the estimated coordinate error was 0.2-0.25 A. The two molecules in the asymmetric unit are related by the pseudo twofold symmetry and form a dimer structure. The backbone structures of the two subunits are nearly identical with the r.m.s. difference of 0.36 A for the superposition of equivalent C(alpha) atoms. The dimer structure is very similar to those of isolectins 1 and 2 with the r.m.s. difference of 0.35-0.39 A for the C(alpha) superposition. Since amino-acid residues which differ from those of isolectin 1 or 2 are not involved in the contact between the two subunits, the subunit-subunit interaction is not significantly affected by the replacement of these residues. As a result, the geometry of the sugar-binding sites which are located at the interface between the two subunit molecules is basically conserved among three isolectins.

Polymethylene spacer linked bis(A1a) peptides form modified β:‐sheet structures

The adipoyl- and suberoyl-linked bis(Ala) peptides have an extended backbone between the two C alpha atoms in each molecule. They self-assemble, through intermolecular hydrogen bonds and stacking of parallel strands, into highly ordered modified beta-sheet-like structures. Crystals data for adipoyl bis(Ala)diester are as follows: C14H24N2O6, monoclinic space group P2(1), a = 4.900(1), b = 29.093(10), c = 6.021(2) A, beta = 104.20(2) degrees, R = 0.053 for 1100 data > 3 sigma (F); for suberoyl bis(Ala)diester: C16H28N2O6, monoclinic space group P2(1), a = 4.887(2), b = 32.650(9), c = 6.004(2) A, beta = 103.79(3), R = 0.070 for 1065 data > 3 sigma (F).