Determination of distance of intra-molecular hydrogen bonding in (Ala-Gly)15 with silk I form after removal of the effect of MAS frequency in REDOR experiment.

It is important to know the structure of silk I (Bombyx mori silk structure before spinning in the solid state) in order to understand the mechanism of fiber formation at the atomic level. In this study, 15N-dephased, 13C-observe REDOR has been carried out to determine the atomic distance of intra-molecular hydrogen bond between the 13C=O carbon of the 14th Gly residue and the 15N nitrogen of the 17th Ala residue of (AG)(6)A[1-13C]GAG[15N]AG(AG)(6) with silk I form after removal of the effect of MAS frequency on the re-coupling. The distance was determined to be 4.3A, which confirmed the intra-molecular hydrogen bonding formation between these two atomic sites.